The Free State ANCWL provincial secretary and Mangaung Metro’s MMC for public safety and security are embroiled in an embarrassing, vulgar-laced catfight that has the potential to dent the image of the party and implode the mayoral committee.
The tiff between the two erupted when MMC Sibongile “Bongi” Tsoleli allegedly posted a demeaning message about a pregnancy on ANCWL WhatsApp group “Mangaung Women Activist”, which was interpreted as a dig at her colleague Theodorah Mosala, who is MMC of economic development in the same metro.
“It’s better for a boy to make me a fool, not to impregnate me,” Tsoleli posted.
Mosala, who lost her husband five years ago, had recently announced her pregnancy.
Tsoleli’s meme created a storm in the group, and ANCWL members and leaders unleashed their fury in a flurry of insults.
One ANCWL leader said, “You… that Bongi, I want God to punish her. She forgets that she was also sleeping with young boys and as her womb is tired and cannot get pregnant, now she has issues when Theo gets pregnant. Bongi should be ashamed of herself.”
Another one said that Tsoleli should stop policing Mosala’s private life.
Defending her post, Tsoleli responded, saying that someone had sent her post to Mosala and told her she was being attacked.
“Theo is sending it to everybody, saying that I am talking about her. Is there anywhere here where I have spoken about Theo in any of my posts? If I have spoken about her, she must open a criminal case against me. I am ready,” said Tsoleli.
She later sent a voice note in which she said the women in the group knew that her post was about a pregnant woman, and that she was with Mosala at the event, and that she never saw her pregnant.
“I don’t know if she is pregnant, and I don’t care what she says about me. Nobody told me that she is pregnant, and why would I say she is pregnant? I don’t give a f**k,” she wrote.
Another ANCWL member in the group called them witches for how they were handling themselves on social media.
Tsoleli said on Saturday that she had never said anything about Mosala’s pregnancy and pointed out that she was talking about a woman who had given birth, not a pregnant woman.
“Theo likes gossip, and I was not referring to her to begin with. I posted that meme and the wording in the group and even said that it was not my handwriting; however, someone took my post and sent it to Theo, who concluded that I was talking about her.
“I have no issues with Theo, as we serve together as MMCs in Mangaung, and also she is my PS in the provincial ANCWL, where I am also a PEC member. People must stop politicking… using my name to score cheap political points.
“The regional elective conference is coming, and people are starting to spread nonsense about me. I didn’t even know that Theo was pregnant until this issue blew up in the group,” said Tsoleli.
Mosala said that Tsoleli behaves like she were sleeping with her husband.
“Bongi’s husband is an old man, and if she thinks that I slept with her hubby, she is mad. That husband of hers is an old man and not my type. My husband passed on five years ago, and I am too old to deal with these things, and what’s wrong with me being pregnant?
Bongi is full of s**t. She is abusing me, and my pregnancy is giving her a tremendous headache. That old woman is on my case every day,” said Mosala.
In June, Tsoleli was fined R50 000 by the Equality Court for the hate speech and racism she unleashed against the former speaker of Mangaung municipality, Stephanie Lockman-Naidoo and her husband, Denver Naidoo.
She was later also suspended from the ANC as a result.
In the judgment, it was stated that Tsoleli had also accused Lockman-Naidoo of sleeping with ANC top guns Paseka Nompondo and Patrick Manyakoane.
