ANC secretary Fikile Mbalula has sent a stern warning to senior party members, including former president Thabo Mbeki, urging them to refrain from publicly criticising the current leadership and to allow the administration space to govern “just as they were allowed to lead”.
Mbeki has publicly criticised the ANC over how it handled President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala controversy. He also lambasted the party during former president Jacob Zuma’s leadership.
“When they were leading the ANC, they were given space. Madiba was told that he should give comrade Thabo Mbeki a chance to lead; he never went to the press,” Mbalula told journalists during a briefing at the party’s headquarters on Tuesday.
“Let’s not do this to the ANC. If Cyril, as president, is failing, call him, give him a chance. Don’t denigrate him in society. Ramaphosa is not infallible; he can be addressed like a child. This is his time and his last dance.
“If tomorrow I retire from the ANC and say the ANC is corrupt, between me and [Mmusi] Maimane, who is in the opposition, who is going to be believed?” he said.
Mbeki had previously written to Deputy President Paul Mashatile, saying the ANC should never have used its parliamentary majority to block Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala matter from proceeding to an impeachment committee.
ANC veterans, including former treasurer-general Matthew Phosa and Mavuso Msimang, have also publicly criticised the party.
Mbalula noted that despite the reservations Nelson Mandela had about how the ANC was run under Mbeki and how he handled the HIV/Aids crisis during his tenure, Mandela never publicly criticised the party.
Mbalula said the ANC had increasingly found itself defending the party not only against political opponents and enemies but also against “its immediate family”.
“The immediate family is the most dangerous because it is the most reasonable voice society is likely to listen to.”
He was also among those who cautioned party members who had described Zuma’s tenure as “nine wasted years”.
“I said be careful because in those nine years there are good things that happened. It is not Zuma who carried the flag of the ANC for nine years; it was the ANC. When Zuma was committing mistakes, where were we? We came back and said we had veered away. Yes, we did commit mistakes.”
Mbalula also lashed out at party members who continue to leak information to the media, saying he was the boss of Luthuli House.
“I’m the boss here. I know others don’t like it but I was elected. When you talk about Luthuli House, the face of it is me. I come after Matamela [Ramaphosa] and [Paul] Mashatile,” Mbalula said.
Mbalula’s remarks come after reports emerged on Sunday that the party had missed a deadline to submit names to parliament for the ad hoc committee that would determine whether Ramaphosa should face an impeachment inquiry.
It is alleged that Mbalula and ANC parliamentary chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli disagreed over who the party should deploy to serve on the committee.
“How can I be defied by a chief whip? That story doesn’t hold,” Mbalula said. “He is employed not by me but in many ways he accounts to me and he is a wonderful chief whip. He can’t defy me.”
Mbalula denied the party had missed the deadline.
“When we finalised the names, it was always late and remember in the ANC we consulted, did our work and finished the names by Friday. I asked him, and he said: ‘I’ll submit.’ We are not equal. I’m the boss; the other one is a chief whip.”
Secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has warned senior ANC veterans, including Thabo Mbeki, against publicly criticising the party, while defending the ANC’s record during Jacob Zuma’s presidency and asserting his authority at Luthuli House