The African National Congress (ANC) has expressed dissatisfaction with ANC Youth League leader Collen Malatji for slamming Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi for appointing “celebrity” and “golden boys” as MECs in his provincial government.
The party says his attacks are unwarranted and that there’s no place for another ANCYL president behaving in the same way that Julius Malema had, which led to his expulsion.
This is after Malatji took a swipe at the provincial MECs for being absent during the campaign season to rescue the ANC from sinking deeper.
He said that some of the MECs appointed by Lesufi had no constituencies and no one knew them and they excluded the youth.
"Panyaza was campaigning alone here in Gauteng," he said.
Malatji said the ANC was sitting at below 40% in Gauteng in the recent election results because of them.
"These MECs were nowhere to be found during campaigns but drinking champagne in the suites with slay queens during rallies."
“We know there are golden boys in Gauteng whom no one can touch ... It is always obvious that they are going to be deployed as MECs, even though they are not known,” he said.
Responding to Malatji’s claims, ANC Gauteng spokesperson Lesego Makhubela said that his remarks criticising Lesufi’s executive were unacceptable within the party.
He said the criticism of Lesufi had no place in the renewal of the party.
“This is one of the reasons why we had people who were behaving like Julius Malema and that the national committee was dissolved because it believed that radicalism meant rising through insults and character assassinating leaders and members of the ANC,” he said in an interview with Newzroom Africa.
Makhubela said that Malatji's statements were not merely aimed at specific individuals, but also served as an “insult” to the party’s volunteers who faced numerous challenges on the ground during the election campaigns.
“You know, we have had difficult campaigns here in Gauteng, (as) most political parties were formed just to contest for elections in Gauteng. Most independents who were on the ballots were in Gauteng, if you look at the legislatures, Parliament, and everything, the most fiercely contested elections were here in Gauteng,” Makhubela said.
He said that anyone who stands up to insult the ANC's volunteers, its regions, and its leadership, and behaves like a “hired gun,” has no place in the party.
This is after Malatji also questioned Lesufi's strategy of employing more people from the Joburg region and leaving out other regions like Sedibeng and the West Rand.
In response, Makhubela said: “That’s why the ANC in Gauteng has written to the officials to say that we need an audience with you because these unwarranted attacks have to clarify where they come from, who are the sources of these particular attacks, what informs them.”
Makhubela said the party did not have space for Youth League leaders attacking the party, in the way that Julius Malema had done.
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