Provincial officials of the African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal will discuss a controversial voice note by a member of the party’s regional leadership in which the late Minister Jackson Mthembu was insulted.
The ANC in the province will be following this course of action after it was initially requested to institute disciplinary steps against the member of the regional executive in the Mzala Nxumalo region in the Vryheid area of northern KwaZulu-Natal. The voice note containing jovial remarks about the COVID-19 related death of Mthembu went viral on social media.
The fate of an ANC leader from the Mzala Nxumalo region will be discussed by the party’s provincial officials next week. A decision to refer the matter to the provincial officials was taken during a provincial working committee meeting on Friday. The member of the region’s executive made light of Mthembu’s death and insulted him in a voice note shortly after the Minister in the Presidency passed away.
The ANC’s Provincial Secretary, Mdumiseni Ntuli, says the party is ashamed of the regional leader’s conduct.
“There is an expectation that the leadership must conduct itself in a particular way and for that comrade to say the things that said about the late Jackson Mthembu was quite unfortunate and it is regrettable. So, the PWC referred the matter to the officials to process it. The officials are going to meet before the end of this week. First and foremost, we will have to understand what has brought about that kind of behaviour so that we can have those comrades taken to the DC. We have had experiences in the past which a councillor in eThekwini with regard to the 5G and the first thing was to summon him before the ANC and before the speaker of the municipality for accountability. And I think it is the same approach that the officials are probably going to take about the two comrades to bring them on board, to make them appreciate the extent to which their public utterances are damaging to the ANC and its reputation in the society. Of course, if they persist and they seem not to understand that it will be inevitable le that they must therefore be taken to a disciplinary committee of the organisation,” says Ntuli.
ANC bids farewell to Jackson Mphikwa Mthembu:
uMkhanyakude speaker expelled
Meanwhile, the ANC has expelled its speaker in the uMkhanyakude District Municipality, Solomon Msane.
The party says Msane has been working with the opposition in an attempt to topple the district mayor, who is an ANC member.
Ntuli says Msane also disregarded several directives and instructions by the party, including a decision that he should resign.
“He was always determined to undermine collectively adopted positions of the ANC and wanted to define himself outside the policy parameters of the ANC. And what was deeply concerning to us was the level of flirting with the IFP. You know, there was an instance when the ANC caucus was involved in an outreach programme, he then convened a council meeting. The Chief Whip told him that the time in which the council meeting would be sitting would not be possible for ANC councillors to make it because they were far. So, the meeting proceeded completely against the advice and the position of the ANC Chief Whip. I called him to a meeting, he refused to come. I wrote a letter to him informing him to resign, (he) refused,” says Ntuli.
Msane has since lodged an appeal with the ANC’s national leadership and will stay on as speaker until the matter has been finalised.
