Durban - Former eThekwini mayor and KZN ANC member of the provincial legislature, Zandile Gumede, and MKMVA spokesperson, Carl Niehaus, have distanced themselves from a bogus meeting scheduled for November 26, purportedly to discuss Ace Magashule’s warrant of arrest.
Also distancing himself from the meeting was popular Durban clergyman, Bishop Vusi Dube, who is always at the forefront of organising supporters for former President Jacob Zuma whenever the latter appears before the Pietermaritzburg High Court for his corruption trial.
According to the flyer, the meeting would be held at Dube’s gigantic church in central Durban, the eThekwini community church (ECC).
The flyer started doing the rounds late on Tuesday, hours after the Hawks in the Free State confirmed that Magashule had been summoned to appear before the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
According to the flyer, speakers at the gathering would include Gumede, Magashule himself, Niehaus, Zuma and Nkosentsha Shezi, a prominent Zuma backer from KwaMashu who is also the chairperson of radical economic transformation (RET) forces in KZN.
“Reports, political inputs on the matter facing ANC, issue on the arrest warrant of SG (Cde Ace Magashule), way forward,” reads the agenda of the denounced meeting.
The poster was viewed as suspicious since it had no contact details for the organisers, although it used the logos of the ANC, the ANC Youth League and SANCO.
Asked by Independent Media about the meeting, Gumede, who is not allowed to take part in ANC activities after being asked to step aside in August this year, said the poster was false.
“It has been brought into my attention that there is a social media poster that has been circulating on different platforms bearing my name and face. I would like to publicly distance myself from such activity. I am not aware nor I am part of such an event. This is yet another poster that has got nothing to do with me. I urge the public to remain cautious of fake posts, fake social media accounts and of any other unscrupulous propaganda images or actions. We must remain vigilant,” she said.
Niehaus said: “I personally distance myself from this gathering.”
Dube said no such a gathering was scheduled at his church.
“I would like to put it on record that I'm not aware of any gathering taking place at ECC and whoever did this poster did it to undermine the leadership of the church. I distance myself and ECC from this gathering and eThekwini Community Church has nothing to do with it,” Dube said.
Shezi and Zuma’s office had not yet commented about the poster by the time this report was compiled.
Meanwhile, the Free State ANC denounced reports it would host a press conference on Wednesday to air its views on the Magashule matter.
The party’s provincial spokesperson, Thabo Meeko, told Independent Media: “We are guided by (the) national media briefing.”
This comes while Magashule, according to a press statement, told the ANC’s top six that he did not want any individual or groups to march or print posters, T-shirts and placards on his behalf.
Political Bureau