Johannesburg - Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula found himself on the receiving end of crude insults from his fellow ANC comrades on social media this week.
And the man who spewed the torrential profanity was none other than Julius Malema’s one-time friend-turned-enemy, Boy Mamabolo.
Parts of the vulgarities are unprintable. “@MbalulaFikile No wonder Cde Tony Yengeni took u to the initiation school, (he) realised that gore (that) ure soo stupid #$@%& (insult uttered in Sesotho removed)”.
The insults came after the ANC Youth League’s National conference preparatory committee - headed by Mbalula - on Sunday reinstated all members of the Limpopo ANCYL provincial executive committee (PEC) that were dissolved by an earlier court order.
Mbalula’s committee reinstated the members in their new roles as provincial task team (PTT) members. Effectively, new PTT members occupy ANCYL offices and perform duties even after the court had earlier ordered them not to do so.
Disgruntled youth league members headed to the high court in Pretoria in May to contest the validity of the congress that elected Vincent Shoba as PEC member that month.
The co-ordinator of the preparatory committee, Nathi Mthethwa, who is also Arts and Culture minister, said on Monday that the PEC remained dissolved and argued that the courts had no authority to dictate how the PTT should be assembled.
It seems the decision to reinstate the same youth leadership has angered Mamabolo, who has been a vociferous opponent of Shoba’s leadership since the controversial election.
On Monday, Mamabolo took to Twitter to insult Mbalula: “@MbalulaFikile just focus on praising (Floyd) Mayweather and leave politics to politicians, ure so stupid and foolish Mbaks.”
Mamabolo called Mbalula Malema’s “lapdog and pimp”.
On Tuesday, Mbalula refused to comment but responded to the insults on Facebook.
“Unfortunately for Boy Mamabolo and company, I don’t discuss internal organisational issues on Facebook and tweeter [sic], I reserve that for the opponents and enemies of our revolution and movement,” said Mbalula.
He said that if Mamabolo wanted to understand the reasons for decisions taken at the Sunday meeting, he should have been part of it.
“His personal hatred for me bears no consequence. I just wish to make him and his ilk aware that I am aware of his tirade of venomous insults and this will not go unchallenged in the ANC for such is not how Cdes should behave,” he wrote.
Mamabolo was unrepentant on Tuesday. He said he stood by everything he wrote on social media about Mbalula.
“At the initiation school, they didn’t cut his arm, they didn’t cut his ear. What did they cut?” Mamabolo said.
The Star