Johannesburg - The ANC Youth League in Gauteng has vowed to block what it called attempts to politically smear acting ANC chairperson and premier David Makhura ahead of the party’s provincial conference this month.
This comes after certain structures of the ANCYL took aim at Makhura, accusing him of trying to target provincial executive committee member and economic development MEC Lebogang Maile, who is one of the candidates to run as his deputy at the conference.
The accusations stemmed from a controversial and allegedly unlawful R26million payment for prepayment by Maile’s department for motorised three-wheelers that were allegedly never delivered by Enviro Mobi, a company linked to ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe.
Makhura has called on the Special Investigating Unit to probe the matter, a move which triggered those who supported Maile to be deputy provincial chairperson to go on the defensive.
Sedibeng ANCYL regional chairman Yusuf Mahommed on Friday slammed Makhura, accusing him of not wanting Maile as his deputy and using his government position to block him.
“Out of 300 cases that need to be investigated by the SIU, why is cadre Maile being singled out? We are not apologetic as the region. We believe in generational takeover and that Maile should deputise Makhura and we cannot help but see these as attempts to prevent him from doing so,” Mahommed said.
PEC member and education MEC Panyaza Lesufi remains a firm favourite for the much-contested deputy chairperson position.
ANCYL provincial chairperson Matome Chiloane described the accusations against Makhura as baseless, adding that he was implementing resolutions of the ANC’s national elective conference which called for intolerance of corruption.
“We are saying there is nothing wrong with the premier acting on corruption and this has nothing to do with Maile as we did not hear of his personal implication. He never said he is going for Maile,” he said.
The provincial ANCYL on Friday also accused some of its structures of creating a non-existent wedge between Makhura and Maile. The rooting out of corruption was in “pursuance of upholding the constitution”. “We don’t believe there is an attack on Maile, neither could there be any reasons that warrant a witch-hunt by the premier on Maile.”