The ANC Chairperson Gwede Mantashe has dispelled reports of the fall-out between himself and the Eastern Cape chairman Oscar Mabuyane.
Reports about the fall-out between Mantashe and Mabuyane first emerged in December when Mantashe addressed the regional conference of Amathole Region and told the conference delegates that the leadership of the province under Mabuyane caught seizures when it became known that he was going to be speaking at Amathole.
For the first time since those reports the two shared the stage at Ngcobo Sub-region of Chris Hani where Mantashe was addressing the cadres forum.
Mabuyane was the first to refer to reports about their fractured relations and asked for Mantashe to clarify.
He said: “There have been reports that we don’t see eye to eye, like there are glitches between us like a bad radio signal which is not fully connected to the station. There are lots of things that have been said about us.”
Mantashe responded at the end of his speech with a vague comment.
He said: “I have nothing to fight about with youngsters, I shout at them when they are wrong to get their acts together.”
Although he spoke about the upcoming Eastern Cape ANC leadership conference Mantashe didn’t endorse Mabuyane even though he made some reminiscent remarks about his mentorship of Mabuyane to be the leader that he is.
On the upcoming ANC provincial conference Mantashe cautioned Mabuyane campaign team not to be overconfident about the outcome of the conference.
“If your campaign team is overconfident you’re going to lose that conference. You don’t win conference before it happens,” said Mantashe.
Mantashe also reiterated that there is nothing in Zondo Commission Report which said he has a case to answer except recommendations that he should be further investigated.
“But if ANC says I must step aside I won’t hire busses, I will step aside. But I will ask ANC about why should I step aside when investigation is still to be conducted,” said Mantashe.
