Kupa takes fight to national leadership
The fallout over the allegations that ANC Tshwane chairperson Kgosi Maepa was part of a student wing of the Afrikaner group Broederbond during his student days is deepening, with the ANC headquarters dragged into the matter.
Sunday World reported that Maepa had threatened to sue a member of the party for R5-million, saying they had been spreading information that he was part of the rightwing during his student days at the University of Pretoria.
The ANC leader in the country’s capital city said one of the members behind the allegations was Thabo Kupa, the former Gauteng secretary of the ANC Youth League and another member, Mzwakhe Mbatha.
Kupa has hit back at Maepa, saying he had embarked on a dirty tricks campaign to impugn his integrity.
“I can only conclude that this was a deliberate attempt or a desperate political ploy designed to shift focus away from the real issues at hand. It is now public knowledge that the comrade [Maepa] has decided to engage in a public spat on the veracity of a story which has been doing the rounds for quite a while, about his history of involvement with the Afrikaner right-wing organisations in the past, before joining the democratic movement and ultimately ascending to becoming part of the leadership,” said Kupa in a letter addressed to Tshwane regional secretary Eugene Modise.
Kupa also copied ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and the province’s secretary Jacob Khawe.
“I have given serious thought to the cause of action I should take to defend and protect my integrity, including the legal route, which I reserve the right to invoke. I did, however, feel the theatrics of the chairperson, first and foremost, reside in the political and organisational realm and are so nakedly designed to achieve a political objective,” Kupa added.
ANC insiders in the region said there was frustration with Maepa’s leadership, with his detractors saying he has failed to broker a deal with EFF leader Julius Malema to oust the DA from running the metro.
Kupa, who was serving with Malema in the ANCYL, is tipped to contest Maepa when the region holds an elective conference next year.
