ANC irked, lets loose on Shivambu
2012-04-16 18:49
Johannesburg - ANC Youth League spokesperson Floyd Shivambu's criticism of Cyril Ramaphosa smacks of ill-discipline, the ANC said on Monday.
"The African National Congress is appalled at the crude, uncouth, disrespectful, and insulting attack," party spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said in a statement.
In an article published on Sunday, Shivambu questioned Ramaphosa's motives for punishing ANCYL leader Julius Malema.
"This attack is both mischievous, disingenuous, and smacks of ill-discipline," said Mthembu.
Ramaphosa is the chairperson of the ANC's national disciplinary committee of appeals (NDCA).
Malema is currently appealing his expulsion from the party. He was expelled from the ANC in November 2011 for sowing division in the party and bringing it into disrepute.
Shivambu wrote that Ramaphosa had sacrificed his principles.
"We initially did not know what the real reasons why Cyril Ramaphosa could degenerate to that level or language and derision of principle were, but certain facts and recent developments shed the light on what could be basis of ignoring principle," Shivambu wrote.
"The fact that a faction in the ANC has promised him the position of deputy president, which he so dearly wanted in 1994, could be one of the reasons why he took such a stance."
Mthembu said Ramaphosa had never discussed being on a list of any ANC faction.
"The branches of the ANC have not started to discuss nominations and therefore there is no truth that comrade Cyril is appearing on any list. This exists in the warped imagination of the likes of Floyd."
Mthembu said the processes of the National Disciplinary Committee and NDCA were determined by the ANC's constitution.
"It is therefore disingenuous to blame an individual for the work processed by a team," said Mthembu.
"This is tantamount to saying other members of the team are dwafs, useless, sheepish followers who do not apply their minds."
Mthembu said Shivambu had a history of lacking discipline.
"This has come with a cost in some of our progressive structures at tertiary level. It is not surprising that he left the Young Communist League on the verge of being charged."
Shivambu is also appealing a guilty verdict against him for sowing division and bringing the ANC into disrepute. He was suspended from the ANC for three years for swearing at a journalist and for issuing a statement calling for a change of government in Botswana.
Shivambu's article continued: "Like all borrowed robes, those given to Cyril Ramaphosa are beginning to wane down through his inconsistent application of principle... If comrade Cyril was really the man of the Constitution who presided over a transition that everybody in the world celebrates today, how did he fail to manage what is vividly an injustice against the leadership of the ANC Youth League?"
Mthembu said the phrase "borrowed robes" undermined Ramaphosa's capabilities.
"It is... saddening that because of petty jealousies from the likes of Floyd, the successes that a number of blacks have achieved in the mainstream of the economy under very trying circumstances is relegated to insignificance.
"The advice we can offer to the likes of Floyd is that ANC members and the public cannot be fooled by their statements," Mthembu said.
- SAPA
