Sabotage claim

Internal battles blamed for failed lecture

THE chairman of the disbanded regional executive committee of the ANCYL, Sibongile Mbotshane, has accused Enoch Mgijima executive mayor Lindiwe Gunuza Nkwentsha of working with members of the regional task team of the ANCYL to sabotage the OR Tambo memorial lecture in Komani recently.

Mbotshane said the lecture, which was supposed to be delivered by ANC Women's League national deputy secretary Weziwe Tikane on April 31, could not take place at the Thobi Kula Indoor Sports Complex as they were unable to gain entry.

The group then went to the town hall and started preparations for the lecture – but due to pesticide being sprayed at the venue, the lecture did not go ahead.

He blamed SA Youth Council regional secretary and regional task team (RTT) organiser of the ANCYL Aphiwe Mkhangelwa, provincial task team organiser of the ANCYL Makhaya Nonyongo and Chris Hani RTT coordinator Lusanda Mahashe for the alleged sabotage.

“Comrade Gunuza [Nkwentsha] instructed officials not to open the indoor sports complex for us. She is conniving with the RTT to sabotage our programmes.

“She is the regional treasurer but she is sending a conflicting message. She knows we sit in the REC meetings of the ANC but she works with a structure that is not recognised by the ANC in the region,” Mbotshane said.

He also claimed that Mahashe, Nonyongo and Mkhangelwa were seen at the hall and after that a pesticide

One person was affected so badly by that pesticide she had to be taken to hospital

was sprayed at the facility.

“One person was affected so badly by that pesticide that she had to be taken to hospital but we decided to have a cadres forum which I addressed. We will take our next lecture to another subregion because it seems Enoch Mgijima is the only subregion that has a problem,” Mbotshane said.

He said the programme was meant to revive the youth league as there had been a lull after their disbandment.

Mkhangelwa said he was going past the town hall when he asked people he knew what was going on. “I was told it was an ANCYL programme. I was surprised because I am the regional organiser of the league and did not know of any programme.”

Mkhangelwa said the REC had been disbanded and could not have programmes in the name of the youth league.

He said he had nothing to do with pouring pesticide in the hall.

Nonyongo said there was no REC in the Chris Hani region – only a task team led by Luvuyo Gatyeni and Lusanda Mahashe.

“I never entered the hall and they don’t even have proof that I entered. We would not go and disrupt an event – no matter what the status of that event is.”

Nonyongo said Mbotshane had issues with Nkwentsha and he should not drag everyone else into that.

“They [the disbanded REC] thought they would use the ANCYL to mobilise for Oscar Mabuyane as the provincial chairman, but the ANCYL is united behind Phumulo Masualle in the Chris Hani region.”

Mahashe confirmed telling “someone” who had called him, not to open Thobi Kula for the people who were attending the lecture.

“Someone called me to ask if we had a programme as the youth league. I said as a leader of the youth league in the region I don’t know of any programme. They were refused entry on that basis.” He said there were ANC internal battles as this was the year of an elective conference.

“We are divided as we are going to an elective conference. We have been tasked with taking the youth league in the region to a conference and that does not need an executive mayor,” Mahashe said.

If Mbotshane’s complaints were genuine, Mahashe said, he should open a case with the police.

Nkwentsha said she worked with Mbotshane in the REC and the latter should have raised the matter with her. As Mbotshane was a councillor at the Chris Hani District Municipality, both of them worked together in the REC. “If he had a challenge with getting a hall he should have called me.”

She said the media was not a platform to discuss such issues.

“If he suspects me of sabotaging his programme then he should come to me. He has never raised an issue with me and to me – this is a show of cowardice.”

Nkwentsha said as a former leader of the league, engagement was used to resolve issues.

She was a member of the national executive committee of the league.