Since Mavuso Msimang resigned from the party he served for 60 years, there has been a reaction from several ANC leaders, with some trying to discredit the ANC veteran. ANC Youth League President Collen Malatji was the latest to weigh in on the matter.

Speaking during a briefing on Tuesday at Luthuli House, Malatji said anyone who publicly departed from the ANC was trying to remove it from power. 

“The ANC is a voluntary organisation. When you leave the ANC you do not announce, you do not do a party and call press briefings — you just do not renew your membership. When you are sent to damage, they even give you media spaces to speak about why you are leaving the ANC. 

“We know that they are profiling you towards the programme of creating faces that are mainly black that are known in society to be revolutionaries. Anyone who leaves the ANC making a noise is leaving to join a programme to remove the ANC out of power,” Malatji said.

Msimang said he sent his resignation letter last week to ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula and his assistant and within hours it was leaked on ANC WhatsApp groups.

In the letter, Msimang wrote about children drowning in pit latrines, raw sewage flowing into rivers, the Life Esidimeni tragedy, people dying while waiting for ambulances, and businesses failing — all while, “ANC leaders publicly proclaim ownership of obscenely wealthy homesteads and other possessions, and send their children to the best schools in the land.”

Msimang said the “dramatic decline in the organisation’s popularity is attributable to widely held perceptions that its members and ‘deployees’ are corrupt, that the organisation has a high tolerance threshold for venality, and that the deployment of unsuitable people accounts for the government’s deplorable levels of service to the public”.

Read more in Daily Maverick: ANC veteran of 60 years Mavuso Msimang ‘painfully’ severs ties, tenders devastating resignation

Msimang also raised alarm bells about the party allowing its members implicated in State Capture to be nominated to serve in Parliament and provincial legislatures in next year’s elections.

Earlier this year the Veterans’ League proposed excluding those implicated in State Capture from its parliamentary lists for next year’s elections, which wasn’t adopted by the mother body.

Mbalula said the veterans were campaigning against the party instead of using their direct line to the ANC’s leadership to discuss their concerns. 

“On a daily basis, they have led a charge against the organisation. We, as the leadership, are available. If they wish to make a call, we will avail ourselves. In a couple of days, it will be the first anniversary of this leadership. While there are a number of issues that have been raised, which have not been addressed, they are on the agenda,” he said last week.

The squabble between Mbalula and the veterans continued to play out this week. 

During a public meeting in the Gauteng village of Wedela at the weekend, Mbalula accused Msimang of having submitted his resignation via the media and said the former Veterans’ League deputy president was likely to join outgoing FirstRand CEO Roger Jardine’s new party, Change Starts Now.

Msimang hit back in a video.

“Well, first of all,” he said, “I have not joined any party, and secondly, it’s insulting to suggest that I accepted a bribe. Another deliberate lie of Mbalula’s is that I announced my resignation from ANC through the media. He knows very well that around 3.50pm on December 6, I sent an email to himself and to his PA, exclusively at Luthuli House.

“It’s only when I was called by [the] media that I responded to confirm the veracity of this … letter. I had to control the narrative of my resignation. It’s really a pity that the ANC has a person like Mbalula as its secretary-general. It’s an embarrassment.”

Msimang denied he was joining Change Starts Now, but said Jardine had consulted him before the party was formed 

‘Regrettable’

In a statement, ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri acknowledged Msimang’s resignation.

“Comrade Msimang is a dedicated stalwart who devoted six decades of his life to the ANC and the cause of freedom. His contributions remain invaluable to this day. Further, as contained in our previous statements about public spats involving leaders and members, we reiterate our call on the veterans of the ANC to stop de-campaigning the ANC and work through the structures of the organisation,” Bhengu-Motsiri said.

ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa deemed Msimang’s resignation as “regrettable”.

“There are many other members who join the ANC on a continuous basis, so we do regret the decision that he has taken, and I am rather pleased that he says that he will want to continue being involved in one shape, form or other in matters that have to do with our country… With time, maybe he will be able to participate with us again,” he said. DM