Johannesburg - Former Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina has pulled out of the race to contest for the position of treasurer-general at the 55th ANC national elections currently under way at Nasrec, south of Johannesburg.
Masina was to contest ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s adviser Bejani Chauke, but announced on the sidelines of the conference that he was pulling out of the race.
He cited change, comradeship, and sharing a common goal as his reasons for pulling out of the position to hold the party’s purse.
However, Masina and Mabe resolved to team up on one slate and avoid dividing votes, which will deal a blow to Chauke’s campaign a few hours after the voting started.
Voting got under way on Sunday afternoon while Mabe and Masina were still involved in talks about the possibility of teaming up.
“In the ANC, we don’t stop engaging until the last minute. We have been engaging with the leadership of Gauteng, and we have agreed that we will support comrade Mabe as treasurer-general.
“Unfortunately by the time we agreed, the ballot was printed and people had already started voting, but we have demobilised so that we don’t divide our support,” he said.
Masina added that the decision to team up was made by himself and Mabe.
“We were not under any duress. We were not instructed by any bishops to take this decision; it is in the best interests of this generation.
“What we need now is change; we cannot continue in the same way,” Musina said.
If you look at those who have been bought, it is because they are victims of the ANC; that is not creating the necessary jobs. The ANC has to do things differently, and that’s why we are supporting Pule,” he said.
Mabe, who flanked Masina at the announcement, said the pair were friends.
“We have worked together before, and we share a common cause. In 2012, when I was elected for the first time in the national executive committee among others, it was comrade Mzwandile Masina who engaged me at the time and in that perspective. We were having our own differences as to who we wanted to take to the 53rd national conference of the ANC,” Mabe said.
“Coming to this conference having been nominated in the manner that I have, we then agreed that after engagement with our leadership and our own engagements both as friends and as comrades that our intended objective is common, and because of that intended objective we then agreed with comrade Masina that our mission is the same as what we want to see happen in the ANC is common.”
“It is only prudent that it is not our own contestation that ultimately undermines the common mission that we want to achieve. Let us unite our people,“ Mabe said.
Pretoria News