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A buoyant Supra Mahumapelo has called on his colleague, ANC head of elections Fikile Mbalula, to stop addressing party members through social media or through comments to media houses, instead urging him to utilise “proper party channels”.
Last week, Mbalula told City Press that the ANC was closely watching “rogue elements” leading up to the May elections.
He singled out Mahumapelo as a “disruptive element”, adding that he was not the first premier to have his leadership team disbanded, and that he did not understand why he was “going around as if he was entitled to the position”.
Read: ANC warns ‘disruptive’ Mahumapelo about his ‘rogue’ tendencies
On Wednesday, the South Gauteng High Court ruled that the decision by the ANC’s national executive committee to disband the North West provincial executive committee, which Mahumapelo chaired, was “procedurally unfair and a breach of the party’s own constitution”.
Mahumapelo took the opportunity after the ruling was handed down to respond to Mbalula.
He said “since he [Mbalula] preferred to address ANC members through the media, he would take a leaf out of his book and straighten out four issues, utilising similar avenues.
“First Supra Mahumapelo is not a political self-preservation activist. Second, if you are a leader and you get the opportunity that has been given to him [Mbalula] by the national executive committee of the ANC, he must use that opportunity to advance the cause of the ANC instead of coming with venom that is personal against some of the comrades,” said Mahumapelo.
He added that his colleague “must make sure that he was exemplary to us who are ordinary members on the ground and not be personal; he should remain unemotional about issues.
“Fourth, if Mbalula has issues about me he must call me. He is my leader, why can’t he call me to his office ... I will come. I can’t refuse so that he can raise his issues with me but if he chooses to raise his issues in the media or on social media then the ANC is in very dangerous hands,” said Mahumapelo.
This comes after Mbalula also took on former president Jacob Zuma on Twitter after Zuma posted photographs of himself at an event honouring Kgoši Mampuru II at the Try Again Sports Ground, in Limpopo, last month.
Mbalula questioned: “But comrade president is this the right thing to do unless you are delegated, Msholozi? You were a president before. Is this the right protocol? To go around addressing events that should be addressed by a sitting president.”
To this Zuma responded: “Comrade Mbalula, I am certain that you are not supposed to ask me such a question on Twitter, because you are inviting me to ask you questions on your question. This will lead to a conversation between you and I. Either you are educating me on ANC policy or vice versa”.
Mahumapelo urged that “leading up to the upcoming elections, ANC members should not be pointing figures. Particularly this thing of nine wasted years under Jacob Zuma, we must not even begin that debate because it is going to divide the ANC and the country”.
He added that nobody was perfect.
“We must look objectively at the past few years and put out a message of hope so that the people of South Africa can vote for us as the ANC and not denigrate another leader or talk bad about another leader as this will affect the image of the ANC and hinder our desire to emerge victorious in the upcoming elections.”
Mahumapelo added that his hope was to see the leadership staying away from using divisive rhetoric and focusing on issues that united the party leading up to the elections.
He said his main focus now that the court had ordered that his provincial executive committee be reinstated was to have the ANC national executive committee fully comply with the ruling so that ANC North West members could focus on ensuring that the ANC won the elections.
