Youth league attacks Gordhan, Mthembu

The ANC Youth League yesterday launched a scathing attack on two of their own, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and parliamentary chief whip Jackson Mthembu, who was labelled a drunkard.

ANCYL deputy president Desmond Moela attacked the two – as well as former public protector Thuli Madonsela – at the league’s eThekwini elective conference in Durban.

“We have somebody in the ANC, Pravin Gordon’s. I don’t know his surname. I call him Gordon’s. That Gordon’s Gin, whatever, [he] is not the god of the ANC. Who is he?” he said.

Gordhan has been involved in a long-running controversy over whether or not he will be charged with the establishment of the so-called SA Revenue Service (SARS) “rogue unit”.

Last month, the National Prosecuting Authority decided not to charge him for fraud and theft over the early retirement of a former SARS commissioner, Ivan Pillay.

Moela said: “Now, we are saying as the ANCYL, that old, retired man must find inner peace and leave us in peace. He must also face the law.”

Turning on Mthembu, he said: “You can’t have somebody called Jack Daniels, who is always drunk, speaking ... without the mandate [of the ANC].”

Last month, Mthembu said the ANC’s national executive committee should resign following the party’s poor performance in this year’s local government elections.

Moela said Madonsela and others, who he did not name, were puppets.

“We know they are conniving with the enemy. Why can’t Thuli shut up and stop talking about issues of that office. Can she get a boyfriend please.”

Gordhan and Mthembu declined to comment.