Tensions are rising between the ANC national leadership and the party’s Gauteng chapter following a failed attempt to reign the province’s chairperson Panyaza Lesufi who is also the Premier.
Lesufi was summoned to the party’s Johannesburg headquarters Luthuli House to explain his public comments about the so-called Government of National Unity which Secretary General Fikile Mbalula implied in a leaked letter to Lesufi that had brought the party into disrepute and undermined the National Executive Committee decision that led to the establishment of the coalition government that includes right wing elements such as the Democratic Alliance and the Freedom Front Plus.
Both former opponents and now allies of the ANC along with Afrikaans pressure group Afri-Forum have called for Lesufi’s head, a call also supported by several leading publications, editors and analysts.
The DA, Afri-Forum and the media outlets have public targeted Lesufi over his purported exclusion of the DA and for allegedly instigating the removal of the DA’s Cilliers Brink who was ousted in a motion of no confidence last month and is set to be replaced on Wednesday.
The DA has hinted at withdrawing from the GNU if Brink is not reinstated and has written to ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula demanding action against Lesufi who is viewed as a rallying point of leftists in the liberation movement who are opposed to working with parties on the right.
In the letter to Mbalula, DA Chairperson of Federal Executive Council Helen Zille claims her party brings stability to government and Lesufi’s perceived freedom of expression could jeopardise that.
“The return of Cilliers Brink as the Executive Mayor of Tshwane is a non-negotiable condition for these talks to resume. The major blunder of yesterday’s events be reversed by re-electing Brink to the position,” said Zille in a letter she wrote to Mbalula a day after Brink’s ousting.
Zille singled out Lesufi as being responsible for Brink’s removal and demanded that the ANC act against him.
“It is very unfortunate that the substantial progress we have made has been undone by the obduracy of your Gauteng leadership under Premier Panyaza Lesufi. Until the ANC’s national leadership re-asserts its authority in Gauteng, the Metros in our most populous province will continue to disintegrate,” said Zille in the letter now being circulated on social media and seen as an instruction to Mbalula.
“Your public utterances seem to argue in contradiction to the NEC resolution in this regard, thereby bringing the the ANC into public disrepute,” said Mbalula in a letter directing Lesufi to make a presentation to the officials explaining himself.
Sources within the ANC said Mbalula failed to convince his fellow Top Seven officials that Lesufi had misbehaved or brought the party into disrepute. Mbalula was scheduled to address the media in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Meanwhile Afri-Forum, Lesufi’s most fierce critic, is trying to take its fight to the courts accusing the Premier of shielding wrongdoers in his administration and even implying he is himself involved in corrupt activities.
“try harder” in response to being trolled by Afri-Forum on social media platform X.