The comments made by  ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe about Mamphela Ramphele’s  new political party, Agang, are sour and distorted.

Mantashe said that a new political platform could be used to destabilise the country.

Nonsense, Mantashe. Is this why  he is accusing the US of  being Agang’s prime funder?

In Venda we have the saying that goes “he who is scared of the hyena’s howling has smeared himself with fat”.

Ramphele is bringing a new lease of life to our political kraal. She is bringing a new idea, an  idea the ANC is afraid of.

It is  alarming to still find people being denied things like sanitation, clean water and electricity.

 In my province, Limpopo, people still share  water with wild animals, but under the ANC Nkandla is growing rapidly, yet in other parts of the country villages are still mired in  poverty and schoolchildren still walk 15 to 20km to get to school.

Ramphele, please come and rescue the children and women of Miyexe, and the children and women of Msinga, who  still live in  poverty, while Jacob Zuma and his government drive around in   flashy cars.

Ramphele is the new broom, hence the power-drunk Mantashe is shivering with fear.