ANC blasts those behind faceless attacks on Mbalula

The ANC has condemned what it terms “faceless” attacks on transport minister Fikile Mbalula and his advisers by anonymous employees in the department.

The party expressed its confidence in Mbalula’s leadership, saying it had noted the great strides he had made in prioritising challenges in the public transport sector.

ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said it noted with concern a letter authored by “faceless individuals” who claimed to be ANC comrades, members and supporters in the department of transport and its entities, making unsubstantiated allegations and attacking Mbalula’s integrity.

“The ANC takes a dim view of public servants who meddle in party politics in the workplace under the misguided belief that they can invoke the name of the ANC and undermine the authority of elected leadership,” Mabe said in a statement on Monday.

“They have no qualms to go to extreme lengths of questioning the prerogative of the president to appoint ministers and deputy ministers.”

He said the ANC distanced itself from those concerned and rejected claims that they acted as ANC comrades, members and supporters.

He said ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa had been emphatic in communicating the views of the party’s leadership collective that civil servants should refrain from getting involved in party political matters in the course of their duties.

“We therefore call on all public servants to respect this injunction and execute their mandate diligently without fear or favour,” Mabe said.

In a letter addressed to Ramaphosa and signed “staff of the national department of transport and all its state-owned entities”, the authors wrote that Ramaphosa had made a mistake by appointing “buddies” Mbalula and director-general Alec Moemi to the department.

“We must state from onset that despite all the issues we would mention about their actions and behaviour, the central question still remains — why did comrade president choose to deploy comrade Fikile to such an important and strategic department such as ours, the national department of transport?

“What criteria did the comrade president use?” it said.

“Didn’t the president foresee that corruption, nepotism, cronyism [and] kleptocracy was going to be the order of the day?”

The authors also copied National Assembly speaker Thandi Modise, chair of the assembly’s transport committee Mosebenzi Zwane, public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, police minister Bheki Cele, auditor-general Kimi Makwetu and Corruption Watch’s David Lewis.

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