Johannesburg - The regional chairperson of the ANC in Tshwane (Pretoria), Dr Kgosi Maepa, says it is not a secret he once served in the FW de Klerk Foundation.
He also said he is not the only ANC leader to have served in the foundation as other senior leaders worked with the foundation too.
Speaking to Independent Media on Thursday after information was being peddled on social media showing that he once served in the foundation, he said he was being singled out because he helped to oust the DA in Tshwane.
In February this year, the foundation was stigmatised after De Klerk said apartheid was not a crime against humanity – for which he later apologised.
Maepa shared his curriculum vitae, which shows that he was once part of the foundation. In the middle of the interview, he said the peddling of this information is meant to portray him as a “traitor”.
“It’s not a secret that thing. How can something on a website and on my CV be secret my brother?
"The ANC dissolved the National Party and said we must work with these white people who were our oppressors and I was also recruited by a guy called Coetzee Bester, who was an adviser of De Klerk,” Maepa said.
He later claimed the information was being peddled for a “sinister motive” against him and pointed fingers at some ANC members.
“The story is these people are going out to find if there is something I can be blamed about because I had a fight with the DA in Tshwane. Remember that I was the leader, I was the face of that fight in Tshwane.
"The DA has been removed, two mayors were removed and two city managers have been removed. DA corruption has been exposed and the auditor-general confirmed that later...
"Now, I am being attacked to project me as somebody who is not ideally an ANC leader, because the idea is to weaken the ANC position in Tshwane by attacking its leader...
"The DA is bringing stories that are unrelated and they are working with some people in the ANC,” he said but did not name the ANC leaders behind this."
He also did not say why the leaders are baying for his blood. He added that the reason why the information about him serving in the foundation is juicy was because they could not find any corrupt dealings on his part.
Political Bureau