By Simon Nare
ANC veteran Tony Yengeni has called out party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula’s leadership style of “slander and insults” and cautioned that he may lead to a further decline in party support.
In a podcast interview, Yengeni hit back at Mbalula, who last week labelled him as a political Casanova who was “spewing vagrant political views that are embraced by a few malcontents who are opposed to the ANC”.
Mbalula went on the attack after the veteran leader mocked the January 8 celebration venue on social media. The secretary-general said at the time that Yengeni would face disciplinary charges for the post and many others from the past.
But Yengeni said in the interview that he never received any calls from Mbalula informing him that he would be charged. He added that he had received a text from Mbalula, and before he could read it, he started receiving calls from comrades alerting him to Mbalula’s remarks.
He said he never spoke to Mbalula telephonically and it was unfortunate that the secretary-general would make an announcement on disciplinary action in public without communicating that to him.
Yengeni said he was shocked to hear Mbalula’s remarks as he considered him a brother and a comrade. He said this was not the first time that he had been attacked by Mbalula.
“You cannot lead an organisation as big as the ANC through slander, through vitriol, through insults and name calling. Yes, we should be firm in terms of asserting discipline, but it must be done with respect. I am not Mbalula’s age group, I am far older than Mbalula.
“Mbalula is a very gifted person in many respects, but I think the ANC leadership has to guide him to do his job with humility and respect. Otherwise, he may end up adding to the demise and decline of the ANC in the country,” said Yengeni.
He went on to say that Mbalula’s behaviour was indicative of a new trend within the movement where leaders were allowed to act with impunity.
He also gave an example of a letter written by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the ANC after he was elected as party president in 2017 in which the president said the ANC was accused number one in corruption.
He added that the letter could have affected the party’s support at the polls.
“Imagine a chief executive officer of bank standing up one day and says my bank is number one in stealing people’s money. What do you think is going to happen to that bank? Do you think people who are clients of that bank are going to have confidence in that bank and keep their money in that bank? No!” he said.
On the ANC’s decline in the recent elections, Yengeni said the organisation should have called for a national indaba and analysed where it went wrong instead of pointing fingers at provincial leaders whose provinces performed poorly.
He further warned that if the party continued on its current path, it would decline further in the local government elections in 2026.
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