Phosa decries ANC, SACP bloody fights

771 ANC Treasurer General, Mathew Phosa responds to media questions at Luthuli House shortly after former Defense Minister Mosioua Lekota's interview with 702. 081008. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu

771 ANC Treasurer General, Mathew Phosa responds to media questions at Luthuli House shortly after former Defense Minister Mosioua Lekota's interview with 702. 081008. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu

Published Jan 28, 2015

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Johannesburg - Former ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa has compared the bloody violence between ANC and SACP members in Mpumalanga to the deadly attack at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine.

Phosa was supposed to deliver a memorial lecture on the late Mbombela council Speaker Jimmy Mohlala before it was disrupted by infighting between rival ANC and SACP members, either opposed to or in favour of the lecture.

He expressed shock at the skirmishes, which saw ANC and SACP members trading blows and firing gunshots at each other in KaNyamazane township, outside Mbombela.

“I have never seen ANC cadres in T-shirts attacking SACP members. It induced a sense of shock for me,” Phosa told The Star on Tuesday.

“My view is that it’s like Charlie Hebdo in France, because blood was spilt where people were supposed to assemble and express themselves freely. The right to expression was trampled on and violated in the most shocking way imaginable.”

Phosa, who is also a former premier of Mpumalanga, called for tougher action against the perpetrators of Saturday’s bloody attacks.

He said the scuffle was not simply an ANC versus SACP affair, because there were also “ANC and SACP members who were opposed to their comrades’ violent behaviour”.

Relations between the ANC and SACP in Mpumalanga have been frosty for many years, and appear to have hit rock bottom in recent times.

The provincial SACP has been demanding that Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza resign because of alleged rampant corruption in the provincial government.

The SACP has blamed a spate of assassinations in the province on an apparent increase in tenderpreneurship.

“It doesn’t matter whether it was the ANC or the SACP. There is no middle road. We can’t be silent, we must investigate and discipline (the culprits),” Phosa said.

“Those people who instigated and carried out the violence are politically bankrupt. There won’t be any no-go areas,” Phosa said.

An outspoken critic of the scourge of corruption besetting the ANC, Phosa expressed dismay that no one had been prosecuted for the murder of Mohlala and other 16 politicians in Mpumalanga.

Mohlala was gunned down in 2009 for blowing the whistle on the R1.2 billion Mbombela Stadium tender.

“We have a duty to know how our heroes like Jimmy Mohlala were murdered and to enquire what has caused the death of so many activists in the past six years, and why there hasn’t been any trial.

“So many people can’t just die and (there’s) no trial. Why this conspiracy of silence? Silence is not an option.”

Phosa was tight-lipped when asked about his relationship with Mabuza, who is a strong ally of President Jacob Zuma.

“I don’t want to go there. I don’t need to have a cordial relationship with him.”

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The Star

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