External pressure ‘led to removal of Msibi from PEC’

A NC national executive committee (NEC) members who attended the Mpumalanga ANC provincial conference could have stopped the election of murder-accused Mandla Msibi – but they ignored it because he belonged to a faction that they favoured in order to win the provincial elections.

Msibi was elected as provincial treasurer at last weekend’s Mpumalanga ANC provincial conference despite the fact that he faced murder and attempted murder charges along with four others.

The charges emanate from a shooting incident that occurred at a Shisanyama eatery in Nelspruit in August 2021.

Meanwhile Msibi had been placed under the ANC’s “step aside” rule as MEC for agriculture and rural development by Premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane. But the ANC Youth and Women’s Leagues “ignored that and nominated Msibi anyway” in contravention of ANC policy.

The NEC members who attended the conference could have stopped Msibi’s nomination and election but deliberately failed to do so.

Members who attended included ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile, who was a keynote speaker, and NEC members Ronald Lamola, Gwen Ramokgopa and Dakota Legoete as well as ANC head of the presidency Sibongile Besani.

The meeting was addressed by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday and he did not mention anything or express reservations about Msibi’s election, and carried on regardless.

According to sources in Mpumalanga, the NEC members wouldn’t have stopped Msibi’s election because he was enlisted in Mandla Ndlovu’s slate, whom they wanted to win the election. So his nomination and election was in the Ramaphosa faction interest, despite their embarrassment of him as a criminal suspect.

“They wanted the election to go ahead because they wanted the slate of Ndlovu to win because it supported CR,” a source said.

But external pressure ensured that Msibi was exposed and removed from the new PEC. The newly elected provincial chair Mandla Ndlovu wanted Msibi to be in his new PEC. Before the provincial conference, a slate led by Ndlovu had Msibi as one of its members.

The slate comprised Ndlovu as chair candidate, Speedy Mashilo as deputy chair, Muzi Chirwa as provincial secretary, Lindiwe Ntshalintshali as deputy secretary and Msibi as provincial treasurer. Indeed the slate made a clean sweep with the members elected as stated.

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Apparently there was a post-conference plan to put pressure on Mtsweni-Tsipane to reinstate Msibi as her MEC for agriculture and rural development.

Before the elective conference, Mpumalanga-based political analyst Goodenough Mashego said bringing him in despite his criminal shenanigans was a strategic move by Ndlovu. He wanted to win support from the ANC Nkomazi region, which is Msibi’s home turf.

The region is home to former Jacob Zuma supporter Ngrayi Ngwenya and having a strong presence there was important for the Ramaphosa camp.

Msibi is second only to Ngwenya in influence in the region.

– ericn@citizen.co.za