ANC stalwart Mavuso Msimang. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Some of the ANC’s top seven officials still hope to convince veteran and senior leader Mavuso Msimang to return to the party following his shocking resignation last week.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian, ANC treasurer general Gwen Ramokgopa said she intended to discuss with the former ANC Veterans League deputy president this week to try and bring him back to the fold.
“He is a man of great repute. And we were looking forward to him being at the centre and we still look forward to him being at the centre of the renewal agenda of our organisation, but also of our country,” Ramokgopa said.
“It is really, really, really regrettable that we had to come to a point where he believes he has to pull back. But we remain engaged with him. And I also look forward to having a direct engagement with him personally.”
Msimang wrote a scathing four-page letter to party secretary general Fikile Mbalula last week when he terminated his membership. In the letter — which was leaked to the media hours after it was delivered to Luthuli House — Msimang said the ANC’s track record on corruption was “a cause of great shame”, given that it once held the “moral high ground” when it took over the government in 1994.
He said the corruption the party had once decried was now part of its DNA, with “dire consequences for the most vulnerable members of our society”.
“As ANC leaders publicly proclaim ownership of obscenely wealthy homesteads and other possessions and send their children to the best schools in the land, there are still many South Africans whose children continue to be exposed to the risk of dropping into pit latrines in poorly equipped public schools and dying horrendous and humiliating deaths. There are children in rural areas who miss classes when streams and rivers are in flood because there are no bridges,” said Msimang.
He also highlighted some of the ANC’s most visible service delivery failures, such as the health system and dilapidated public infrastructure. The environment for business in South Africa was “entirely disabling”, which had led to companies “failing, downsizing or simply deciding not to invest anymore in our country”, as thousands of jobs were being lost and unemployment soaring, Msimang added.
Ramokgopa said she held Msimang in high regard and wanted to understand the context of his resignation letter during her planned discussion with him, which came after the respected ANC veteran’s public spat with Mbalula over his exit.
During a party event on Sunday, Mbalula accused Msimang of taking a bribe from Roger Jardine — a former ANC member and leader of business who launched a new party at the weekend. Mbalula went on to accuse Msimang of leaking his letter to the media.
Ramakgopa said it was “painful” for the party to have any of its members leave, adding that the ANC would remain committed to being a vehicle to advance the quality of life and shared prosperity in the country.
“Yes, we are taking lessons from some of the weaknesses and some of the challenges and some of the external factors like the pandemic, that were great offsets. However, the values, the principles and the commitment to renewal are a guiding light,” she said.
“There’s a politician who said the ANC was difficult to break from outside, and that it must be targeted to be broken from within. So others are either lobbying to break the ANC from within, but the ANC has identified those measures, and that’s why [we have] the renewal agenda.
“Some trusted ANC members found themselves maybe involved in wrongdoing. We are saying they must account on their individual basis and they must leave the ANC as a vehicle that can be used to advance our country.”
The ANC Youth League has taken Mbalula’s side against Msimang.
In a media briefing on Tuesday, its president Collen Malatji said Jardine was using ANC stalwarts to legitimise his newly formed party.
Malatji said some of the veterans were acting like prefects of the ANC, and those who had returned to South Africa from exile after the fall of apartheid had been appointed to state boards, resulting in the failure to implement pro-poor ANC policies.
“Anyone who leaves the ANC and makes a noise is obviously profiling himself to join something else that wants to remove the ANC from power,” Malatji said.
He defended Mbalula’s credentials in the ANC — after Msimang had slammed him as not being the right calibre for the secretary general position. The youth leader accused Msimang of having a clear plan to target President Cyril Ramaphosa and Mbalula.
“There is a clear plan. The clear plan is to target the SG of the ANC, target the president of the ANC, collapse the party and create an alternative that speaks our language of privatisation and enriching ourselves,” he said.
“That is the language and we are aware of it and as the ANC youth league we will defend the ANC with everything we have. We are not here for individuals. If they want to leave, it’s a voluntary organisation. They can do that.”
Malatji added that those who left the ANC must surrender their credentials, accusing some party veterans of being spies.
Msimang last Friday poured cold water on speculation that he would join Jardine’s party, saying he had been consulted by the business leader.
Msimang, who spent 60 years of his life in the ANC, met Jardine’s team and was asked for “advice” during behind-the-scenes consultations ahead of last week’s launch. He said he had not been asked to join the new movement — and had no intention of doing so.
Jardine is a former United Democratic Front activist who served as director general of the department of arts and culture in Nelson Mandela’s administration before entering the business world.
Jardine resigned as the board chairperson of the First Rand group earlier this year and has the backing of the business community to run as a presidential candidate for the opposition coalition, the Multi-Party Charter of South Africa.