ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula, has rejected Ace Magashule’s attempts to reach out to him saying in his usual crowd-rousing rhetoric that “Magashule will not even see (the) slightest (sic) of me. He can meet up with those he wants to meet up”.
Mbalula was speaking during the party’s Letsema Campaign rally in Tumahole, Parys, in the Free State on Tuesday and he spoke at great length about how Magashule failed to condemn the actions of those who were burning ANC T-shirts.
He said to the cheering crowd: “Magashule is not a branch secretary member he is a former secretary-general of the ANC and chairperson, not for two weeks but for a very long time. So he knows what he’s doing and has made up his mind.
“There is nothing wrong with people coming out to support a leader but they came out to intimidate and burn ANC property…it’s intimidation and an act of terror. Magashule himself (knows) these things are done under his name and he has not condemned it.”
Magashule, a former Free State Premier, was elected ANC Secretary-General at the Nasrec Conference in 2017 and was suspended and then expelled from the party recently after being charged with misconduct for ‘suspending’ President Cyril Ramaphosa without consultation.
There have been reports that Magashule is forming his own political party. And some people in Tumahole said they will follow him wherever he goes because the ANC treated him unfairly.
Boitumelo Majoe said his expulsion may lead to people following him wherever he is going.
“If Magashule wants to go people will follow him wherever he wants to go, it’s normal. Julius Malema when he left, he left with comrades. Why should it be wrong when it’s done by Magashule,” he asked.
Another Magashule supporter Nhlanhla Mahao accused the ANC of arrogance.
“The leadership of the ANC, when the community comes to them and tries to engage them they become so arrogant that is the reason that has pushed us out of the ANC,” he said.
