Nkululeko Ncana
ANC leader, 36, said to have been spirited away to traditional initiation school in Phillipi
FORMER ANC Youth League president Fikile Mbalula has been taken to a Xhosa initiation school to be initiated into manhood.
The Times has established that the firebrand politician, who played a leading role in unseating President Thabo Mbeki as ANC leader last year, is now an initiate at a traditional school in Phillipi, Cape Town. He was taken there on Saturday evening by former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni and fellow National Executive Committee member Nyami Booi. ANC sources who visited the initiation school yesterday said a goat was slaughtered for the 36-year-old as part of the ritual of acknowledging his transition to manhood — despite the fact that Mbalula has been married for more than three years to his wife, Nozuko. The Times understands that former youth league leaders Lunga Ncwana and Songezo Mjongile were among those who gathered yesterday to wish Mbalula well. Booi, also a parliamentarian, confirmed that Mbalula was at the school, but refused to provide details. “Yes, he is. I don’t want to go into details, but he is here,” Booi said last night. He said Mbalula would spend a month at the school. Yengeni is said to have been agitating for Mbalula to be initiated. Repeated attempts to get hold of Mbalula proved fruitless as his cell- phone was off yesterday. Yengeni was not available for comment. News of Mbalula’s initiation has set tongues wagging in the Western Cape, where a fierce power struggle is raging within the ANC. By late Saturday political circles inside and outside the province were saying the move was a “political ploy” by Yengeni and provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha to prevent Mbalula uncovering shenanigans in the run-up to the ANC’s Western Cape conference. Mbalula, who heads the ANC’s organising department, has been tasked with ensuring that delegates who attend the conference are properly accredited. The Times understands that he has been at loggerheads with Skwatsha and other provincial leaders, who had wanted to limit his access to the party’s branches. Late yesterday there were claims that Mbalula had been taken to the school against his wishes. But this has been denied by party insiders, who say he had expressed a desire to take part in the initiation. Skwatsha has denied involvement in the matter. “I don’t know anything about that,” he said when it was put to him that he and Yengeni had organised for Mbalula to be taken to initiation school. Asked to confirm that he knew that Mbalula had been taken for circumcision, Skwatsha said: “I would not want to comment on that, I’m not his family.” A source told The Times that Mbalula had allegedly been with Yengeni in Guguletu when “several men” spirited him away. — Additional reporting by Werner Swart.
