Demand for hecklers’ heads

Mantashe stopped from speaking in KZN

ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe has demanded disciplinary action against KwaZulu-Natal party delegates who heckled and prevented him from addressing the conference of the party’s biggest province.

Mantashe at the weekend became the second ANC official to face the unhappiness of former president Jacob Zuma’s supporters, who, while banging tables, sang Wenzeni uZuma (What has Zuma done?), preventing him from speaking.

In April, Zuma backers sang the song in the presence of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Mantashe had been scheduled to open the conference, but delegates fuming over a court ruling that interdicted the elective gathering demanded the event to be cancelled.

ANC provincial task team co-ordinator Sihle Zikalala nevertheless called Mantashe to the podium to speak, but delegates would have none of it.

Zikalala said at the weekend the incident was an embarrassment and apologised to Mantashe, officials and the national executive committee (NEC) on behalf of delegates.

But Mantashe yesterday said there had to be action against those who prevented him from speaking. “The issue is not the apology… The province must discipline members who misbehaved. ANC members must behave like ANC members.”

Mantashe said the conference was factional because certain leaders were prevented from speaking while others such as Zikalala were allowed to speak.

“That was a factional, organised and deliberate disruption. They (also) stopped Mike Mabuyakhulu from speaking, but allowed Sihle to speak and stopped me from speaking.”

Mabuyakhulu, who is the convener of the provincial task team team, NEC members Bheki Cele, and Jackson Mthembu were also heckled. The three were aligned to Ramaphosa’s bid for the Presidency while the unhappy members and Zikalala supported Minister in the Presidency Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

Not intimidated

Mantashe, who had also backed Ramaphosa to succeed Zuma, said he would not be intimidated. “I don’t have a no-go area; should the organisation deploy me to KZN I will go.”

Zuma supporters had also put on a show of force outside the Durban High Court when the former president appeared on charges of corruption.

Meanwhile, the speech by ANC North West chairperson Supra Mahumapelo, during which he said Zuma was still “our president” caused a fallout in the platinum province, with the SACP abandoning an organised meeting with the ANC and Cosatu at the weekend.

Eastern Cape ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukaitobi expressed shock at the heckling of Mantashe, saying that all party leaders should be respected by all structures.

“When they are not allowed to speak it is not democratic principle of the ANC. “You will not have expected a meeting with credentials to descend to that level. We are not only a political organisation but a governing party,” he said..

When contacted on whether action would be taken against those who heckled Mantashe, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said: “The relevant structure and deployees should bring their report for proper processing.”

Zikalala and Mabuyakhulu were in a day-long meeting and could not be reached for comment.

Political analyst Protas Madlala said the NEC should remove Zikalala and replace him with someone neutral, to lead the party to unity.