Johannesburg - The ANC National Youth Task Team (NYTT) has implored Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina to reject calls to retract his latest controversial remarks on “white monopoly capital” as his political fate was discussed with the ANC regional leadership on day.
Masina, also regional chairperson in the metro, dared the governing party to fire him from his top post for taking to a social media platform to express EFF leader Julius Malema’s stance in dealing with the country's economy.
Rejecting the easing of the current national lockdown to level 3 last week, Malema called on people to stay at home and “die with our boots on rather than kneeling down to protect the white monopoly economy”, which he said must collapse.
NYTT national spokesperson Sizophila Mkhize said they supported Masina and his stance.
On Sunday night, Masina took to Twitter in support of Malema, which resulted in him being rebuked by the ANC, which later requested him to retract his tweet.
“I fully agree with my friend on this one Julius Malema. Until we nationalise all commanding heights of the economy - we need to restart this economy and make sure it favours the majority. This can’t be sane again,” Masina said in his post.
In a statement on Monday, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said Masina’s views fell outside the confines of the party’s policy position, adding that “leaders of the ANC feed into the narrative of policy uncertainty when they publicly canvas positions outside the formal structures”.
On Monday night before deactivating his account, Masina wrote: “I can be removed tomorrow as mayor I’ll accept without hesitation. I’m not a coward. I’m ready ANC, I won’t ask you why. What I won’t do is to be friends with WMC. My views are more important than being gag (sic) by whites. I’m not a coward. Kill me if you can, I fear no one.”
Mkhize said the NYTT was against Masina retracting his views even if the ANC threatened to discipline him.
“We believe that he must stand by what he said even if they take him for a disciplinary hearing. We do not see how what Masina said is different from the ANC policies on economic transformation as adopted at Nasrec.
“Maybe if he is sent to DC the ANC leadership will tell us if these policies have changed and when they changed,” she said. Masina is not new to controversy within the governing party as he has been constantly bashing heads over the ANC’s economic direction with those who were considered to be proponents of white monopoly capital within the party’s ranks, including Finance Minister Tito Mboweni.
The regional leader also made a controversial undertaking to relinquish his position as mayor ahead of the 2017 ANC national elective congress in Nasrec if President Cyril Ramaphosa emerged as president as he backed Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
Mkhize accused the ANC of being selective in how it treated its leaders who voiced their personal views on social media, adding Mboweni was not made to make retractions. “He’s being unfairly treated and we don’t know of anything that he has said that goes against the ANC policy.”
ANC Ekurhuleni regional spokesperson Sonnyboy Masinga said the party’s regional leadership was still awaiting Masina to brief them on his remarks. Mabe had not responded to questions.