https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / News / All News RSS ← Back
Eskom|Power
Eskom|Power
eskom|power
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Article Enquiry

Netshitenzhe opportunistic for claiming ANC has lost control - Mantashe

Close

Embed Video

1

Netshitenzhe opportunistic for claiming ANC has lost control - Mantashe

ANC General Secretary Gwede Mantashe
Photo by Reuters
ANC General Secretary Gwede Mantashe

19th May 2017

By: News24Wire

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

African National Congress(ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) member Joel Netshitenzhe's claim that the party has lost control of its deployees was opportunistic, party general secretary Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday.

"It is opportunistic of any leader of the organisation to stand outside of the structure he leads and throw stones at it," Mantashe said.

Advertisement

Netshitenzhe told delegates at the Northern Cape ANC's elective conference that Brian Molefe's return to Eskom as its CEO proved the party was no longer the strategic centre of power.

He quoted the ANC statement in which the party criticised as reckless Molefe's return to the power utility.

Advertisement

"We are angered by the actions of our deployees, which demonstrate the vanguard has lost its DNA, its capacity to lead, let alone society, even to lead its own deployees," Netshitenzhe said at the time.

The ANC's top six officials summoned Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown to ANC headquarters Luthuli House and ordered her to reverse the decision to reappoint Molefe.

Tensions

Mantashe said making Brown explain herself showed they were still in control. He said Molefe's return was "dangerous". Eskom risked facing court action, including from other hopefuls for the job.

"The first line is to call the minister and say that decision is dangerous. You are throwing the country, you are throwing the ANC; you are throwing Brian under the bus. Please go back and work with the board to rescind it," Mantashe said.

Molefe's return heightened tensions within the party and the tripartite alliance. It was expected to be discussed during next week's national executive committee meeting.

Mantashe criticised the ANC Youth League for criticising ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa, after he had criticised the Gupta-owned broadcaster ANN7.

The ANCYL tweeted on Wednesday that Kodwa's utterances went against the ANC's principles.

Kodwa had tweeted: "I feel your pain at this moment, you will never capture the ANC through lies and deception."

He was reacting to an ANN7 report that quoted unnamed sources saying the ANC's top six had rejected Kodwa's statement, in which he described Molefe's return as reckless.

Mantashe said it was not the first time the ANCYL was relegated to "henchmen of a faction" and unleashed on individuals.

"We lose the sense of having a youth league," Mantashe said.

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Comment Guidelines

About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options

Email Registration Success

Thank you, you have successfully subscribed to one or more of Creamer Media’s email newsletters. You should start receiving the email newsletters in due course.

Our email newsletters may land in your junk or spam folder. To prevent this, kindly add newsletters@creamermedia.co.za to your address book or safe sender list. If you experience any issues with the receipt of our email newsletters, please email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za