By Simon Nare
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula has lambasted businessman Brown Mogotsi, warning party members to remain vigilant against so-called “comrade tsotsis.”
Mbalula cited Mogotsi and Gauteng businessman Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala, who have been implicated by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in the looting of billions through Tembisa Hospital tenders.
Both men have also been named at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry for their close ties to ANC leaders, in particular suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu.
Briefing journalists after the ANC’s National Working Committee (NWC) meeting, Mbalula said such figures infiltrate the party in numbers, often exploiting alleged proximity to leaders without their knowledge, and in the process, tarnish the ANC’s image.
Mbalula confirmed that Mchunu has not yet appeared before the party’s Integrity Committee to explain himself after the explosive revelations by KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner General Nhlanhla Mkwanazi came to light.
“So, comrade Senzo will appear before the committee and all other members who are required to either voluntarily present themselves voluntarily or they will then be summoned,” he said.
Mbalula said Mogotsi was an example of a bad ANC member who it has now come to light about how he was using his membership to loot and engaged in illegal activities.
He promised that members like Mogotsi are going to face the wrath of the party, saying he was one of many who had become obsessed with money and the party’s Electoral Committee was addressing this matter in choosing its candidates.
Mbalula said the party was aware of the situation of how money was exchanging hands.
“We know that our organisation has been infiltrated by criminals. We know. Sometimes not in the knowledge of comrades who are in positions of leadership and they become victims of these criminals,” he said.
“If this is the moment to get rid of such, let it be. And if Madlanga Commission is going to help us to exorcise in the system of the ANC such criminal elements let this opportunity not be missed. But I can tell you on behalf of the ANC, criminal elements who are throwing our name as a movement and the ANC in vain will never be tolerated.”
Mbalula said every member of the ANC should take lessons from this moment to be alert and be on the look-out for “comrade tsotsis”.
He added that even during the struggle there were such “comrade tsotsis” who while genuine comrades were waging the struggle and confronting the oppressive forces, they were busy looting in the township.
The Secretary General said even in the present day these “comrade tsotsis” have infiltrated the movement and they are now being exposed by commissions such as the Madlanga Commission.
“There can never be an ANC member and a leader who can have proud association with criminal elements like that. And some of our leaders gets associated with these criminals unknowingly but today it’s a lesson for everyone and the ANC is not going to keep quiet and stand back and allow its name to be dragged by criminals,” he said.
“They are many who do such activities in the name of minister so and so and yet they are perpetrating criminal activities and even that minister doesn’t even know that his name or her name is being brandished in the dark corners of criminality, in the corners of cartels.”
Mbalula called for party members to be vigilant and be alive to who they associate with and what those associates’ intentions.
Mbalula also revealed that the NWC was seized with the issue of lifestyle audits of its members as it has already publicly committed to it.
He said the lifestyle audit will start with the executives, employees of state-owned enterprises as well as public servants.
He added that the process must be credible, informed by prescripts of the law so that it doesn’t degenerate into a witch-hunt and not be selective but apply to everybody across the board.
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