ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said the statement by party's Gauteng branch was unfortunate.
Cosatu's suspended general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi's recent activity on Twitter shows he is not disciplined, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday.
"That is the problem: a lack of discipline when you are leadership," Mantashe told reporters in Mpumalanga following a three-day meeting with members of the party's national executive committee (NEC), which ended on Thursday.
Leaders of the African National Congress were in Mpumalanga ahead of the ANC's 102nd anniversary celebrations, which take place on Saturday.
Mantashe was referring to a war of words on social networking site Twitter on Wednesday between Vavi and ANC national executive committee member Tito Mboweni.
Twitter spat
Mboweni asked Vavi if he had declined nomination to the ANC's list for Parliament because he was in talks with the Economic Freedom Fighters.
"@Zwelinzima1 You wrote about why you decline nomination for Parly. Is that the truth? Or is it because of EFF/Numsa coalition leadership?," Mboweni asked Vavi on Twitter.
"@Zwelinzima1 It is public knowledge that negotiations are on between Numsa and EFF about whether you or Juju should lead EFF to elections?" Juju is EFF leader Julius Malema's nickname.
Vavi tweeted: "Who else have heard this 'public knowledge' except some day dreamer with a paranoid mindset? Ndiqhelwa kakubi ngoku (loosely translated as 'some people are getting too cosy with one another')."
Vavi later tweeted: "Some never check validity of any infor they receive from infor peddlers – they just act or adopt an attitude.
"An information peddler sent sms to SG [Gwede Mantashe] claiming that I & Ntola were meeting EFF at Clifford Motsepe house in Polokwane whilst I was in JHB".
Mantashe said Vavi was using Twitter to "justify his mood".
"I can only describe [Vavi's behaviour] as mischievous, because Comrade Vavi has all the time to engage us. We talk to him everyday."Comrade Tito asked him to come clean on the matter, he is not coming clean.
He is talking about peddling of information, he must say 'I did not have a meeting with Malema, I am not going to join the EFF."
Declined nomination
Mantashe said if Vavi wanted to join the EFF, he should say so and not create a conspiracy which did not exist.
He said the ANC had told Vavi its branches had nominated him to go to Parliament.
"All he could have said was 'I am not comfortable about going to Parliament, I prefer to go to the NGOs', as he said in his tweet."
On Monday Vavi tweeted: "I am honoured by ANC member's confidence in me demonstrated through nomination to serve as an MP but I have to respectfully decline.
"To me the priority for now is not on strengthening of parliament but building organs of peoples power that's how we can served democracy.
"Sweetheart unions who largely serve only as a ladder for its leaders to get MP jobs neither serve members or democracy."
Mudslinging
Mantashe said Vavi had decided to make the matter public by posting it on Twitter, and by making it available for public consumption, and that the party would not participate in a game of mudslinging.
On Thursday evening, Vavi tweeted that he and Mboweni had spoken and agreed to put the matter to rest, as there was no evidence to back the allegation.
Malema has denied meeting Vavi.
"I have never met Vavi … there is no such discussion between us," Malema told reporters on Thursday. – Sapa