ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said party president Cyril Ramaphosa has not distributed any information about the ‘resignation’ of deputy president David Mabuza.
JOHANNESBURG – ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said party president Cyril Ramaphosa has not distributed any information about the “resignation” of deputy president David Mabuza.
There have been widespread reports suggesting that Mabuza, also known as “Cat”, has resigned from his position.
Mbalula was speaking on the sidelines of the ANC national executive committee (NEC) lekgotla, which is a two-day meeting that brings together the political leadership and senior government officials to assess the performance of the ANC-led government against its policies and targets.
Mabuza did not attend the lekgotla, and Mbalula told the media that he sent an apology, which the leadership accepted.
“The president has not shared anything about the resignation of the deputy president, and the deputy president has apologised. His apology was read and accepted. There’s no problem about it. Mabuza has been one of the most loyal servants of the ANC, and he has served our movement with diligence, dignity, integrity, and discipline,” said Mbalula.
He said they know Mabuza to be well-organised and disciplined and not the kind of person who competes for positions or anything of the sort.
“If he apologises that he cannot make it to this meeting, his apology is accepted. If he resigns, he will engage and talk to the president, and the president will engage.”
Mbalula insisted that the ANC is currently orderly.
“We come from the 55th national elective conference. We are now at a lekgotla. We come from the NEC, and we’ve got a clear mandate in terms of what we need to do: be obsessed with people’s interests; that’s what’s important.
“Positions, yes there are there, if reshuffle comes replacement of people but that is not our preoccupation, our preoccupation is what are we doing to deepen social transformation, decisive action. That is what is urgent now on our table.
“By June, when we talk, we should be saying that in January, you said the following, how far are you?” Mbalula said
Addressing the lekgotla, Ramaphosa conceded that unemployment remains “unacceptably” high and many people have lost hope of finding employment.
“The youth is especially affected by such unemployment, with nearly a third of young people between 15 and 24 years old not in employment, education or training,” he said.
Ramaphosa also addressed the “elephant in the room”, the electricity crisis, which is crippling the economy and affecting South African citizens on a daily basis.
It is known that the energy crisis started in 1998.
“The electricity crisis continues to undermine economic growth and investment. Load shedding damages businesses, disrupts households, compromises the provision of social services, and affects the safety and well-being of the people. Load shedding also has a negative impact on food production,” Ramaphosa said.
He also said lawlessness, criminality, illegal mining, construction site extortion, cable theft, and violence mean that many people, especially women and children, live in fear.
Ramaphosa said due to the rising cost of living, many households are finding it difficult to meet their most basic needs, such as food, transport and energy.
He did not shy away from pointing out that many municipalities are failing, and most municipalities are under the ANC while a few metros are under the coalition government.
“Many municipalities are failing to perform their basic functions, such as the delivery of clean water, regular waste collection, and road maintenance,” Ramaphosa said.
Political analyst Sandile Swana, speaking in an interview with one of the broadcasters, said the information that the president has presented has been consistent for some time in putting in the January 8 statement and other preceding statements, and he did raise the fact that there’s a big elephant in the room, which is the worsening load shedding that has gripped the population.
“He did try to make us understand what is going on, for instance, that farmers and our food security is now in question because of load shedding, so we may not have enough in South Africa to sustain ourselves,” said Swana.
He said security on a day-to-day basis in homes and businesses is compromised by the load shedding.
Swana said the president also went on to point out that there were too many municipalities that have collapsed in South Africa.
“But he did not say that the exceedingly large majority of those are ANC municipalities that have collapsed and state owned entities that could be doing a much better job in development that has been collapsed, which also now need people who are highly competent to be appointed to those entities.”
