Mbalula says ANC to charge Tony Yengeni with ill-discipline

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has announced charges are being formulated against former president Jacob Zuma’s ally and party veteran Tony Yengeni. 

Briefing the media on Monday, Mbalula warned that those who bring the organisation into disrepute on social media would be disciplined. 

Mbalula said Yengeni and former deputy chair of the international relations subcommittee, Obed Bapela, would be hauled to a disciplinary committee with the possibility of having their membership suspended or facing expulsion.

Bapela was removed as a member of the subcommittee after he travelled to Morocco and spoke on behalf of the party without an instruction last year. The ANC has been against Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara. 

Yengeni has been a thorn in the ANC’s side since his time as a member of the national executive committee, often taking to social media to express his frustration with the party’s leadership. Yengeni has been a critic of ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and often raised questions about his actions in the Phala Phala scandal. 

Yengeni recently defended Zuma in internal disciplinary hearings of the ANC.

“Yengeni is nothing but a political Casanova and is spewing vagrant political views and views that are embraced by a few malcontents who are opposed to the ANC,” said Mbalula. 

He said he had alerted Yengeni that he would be charged for statements he had made on social media. 

“Discipline in the ANC is important. I have seen other people on X. Leaders of the ANC tweeting things that bring the ANC into disrepute. They too will be disciplined.”

Mbalula said he was aware some provinces had decided to ignore ill-discipline, which necessitated the national leadership to take action. 

He said Yengeni had used social media to support the Zuma-led MK party, which he said was ill-discipline. 

Yengeni has had an acrimonious relationship with Mbalula. In 2023 Mbalula suggested Yengeni had an alcohol problem. Yengeni retaliated, saying Mbalula “must keep my name out of his filthy mouth”.

The ANC will hold its annual birthday celebrations in Cape Town this weekend. The party’s top leaders will travel around the Western Cape to regain support in the province. 

Mbalula said the people of the Western Cape had been abandoned by the DA-led government, claiming indigent policies which allow the poor access to free basic services had been abandoned by the provincial government. 

The national executive committee (NEC) was expected to meet on Monday afternoon. Mbalula announced discussions about the fate of the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provincial leadership would not form part of the agenda.

The NEC had one item on its agenda, which was the adoption of its January 8 statement to be delivered by Ramaphosa on Saturday. 

The ANC is also expected to meet the SACP, a member of the tripartite alliance, after its resolution to fight the 2026 municipal elections independently. 

Mbalula said the NEC would reflect on the SACP’s decision and added the ANC respected the SACP as an independent party. He said the ANC would want to avoid the SACP contesting elections, calling it a calamity.

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