ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula is being used as a scapegoat by his mischievous colleagues who apportion the blame on him for the party’s national working committee NWC) decisions that are deemed unpopular among the party ‘s rank and file.
This became apparent when several members of the ANC NWC complained that Mbalula has unilaterally postponed again, the much-awaited national executive committee (NEC) meeting which was scheduled to take place between April and June.
That meeting was then scheduled for this past weekend but on Monday the NWC took a decision to shelve it and look into another period sometime in August.
The ordinary NEC meeting was set to discuss the government of national unity (GNU), the toxic reconfiguration for the alliance and the national general council (NGC) billed for December among other issues.
“The SG is running away with the meeting and keeps on kicking the can down the road because he is avoiding the burning question of whether or not to keep the DA in the GNU,” said one insider in the NWC.
Another source expressed their frustrations around the continuous cancellation or postponement of meetings.
“I do not know what is going on nowadays in the ANC, NWC meetings get postponed and the same can be said about NEC gatherings. We do not have an organisation anymore, the NEC meeting was supposed to take place in May, then postponed to June and again this weekend and it is postponed again. They are running away from accountability and rendering the NEC toothless.”
However, Sunday World was able to independently establish that the decision to defer the meeting in which NEC members were expected to take a decision to kick the DA out of the GNU was taken collectively and unanimously by all NWC members and not by Mbalula alone.
Also, the decision was endorsed by the ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa in his summary closing the NWC meeting on Monday.
Sunday World has heard of how more than five NWC members rose to propose the postponement without a single objection from those that were present.
Mbalula was not among those that proposed the postponement.
Insiders sympathetic to Mbalula said people were using him as a scapegoat and bogeyman of decisions taken by a collective.
“It is nonsense that cadre Mbalula is the cause of the postponement of the NEC meeting, those are fairytales spread by people who have a problem with the man and are hellbent on blemishing his name by any means necessary,” said our informant who attended the NWC meeting on Monday.
“Mbalula has no such authority to can be able to unilaterally postpone meetings. It is pure mischief; the matter was raised by NWC members and there was no debate or argument about it because everyone agreed, so it was a decision of the NWC meeting. How can that then be said to be a Mbalula decision?”
Another leader said people seeking to make party decisions those of an individual were not in touch with reality.
“Mbalula called for the meeting and the NWC advised him to postpone to a later date. Nobody objected, it is the same NWC members blaming Mbalula who suggested the postponement.
Mbalula never proposed that the meeting be postponed and never motivated for the proposal when it was made.”
This newspaper understands that the decisions which was taken by the meeting was affirmed by Ramaphosa in his closing and still, not a single member objected.
In fact, Mbalula is said to have made a presentation on the GNU he is accused of running away from its discussion.
Mbalula’s only take on the postponement was at the end, since he was at the time chairing the meeting in place of national chair Gwede Mantashe who was absent.
“Mbalula did not come with the suggestion that the meeting should not convene this week,” said the NWC member.
ANC national spokersperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri slammed as divisive those blaming Mbalula for the postponement of the NEC meeting.
She confirmed that the decision was a unanimous NWC resolution.
“The decision to postpone the national executive committee meeting was unanimously taken by the NWC. Any insinuation to the contrary is the work of wedge drivers,” said Bhengu-Motsiri.
