‘Ideally, everyone should have been on the Robben Island ferry’: Gwede Mantashe on Fikile Mbalula yacht trip

National chairperson of the African National Congress, Gwede Mantashe says the party will be discussing the whirlwind of controversy around secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, using a luxurious yacht to travel to Robben Island.

IOL reported on Monday that the ANC insisted that Mbalula had a busy schedule around Cape Town, on the sidelines of the January 8 celebrations, which warranted his transportation to a recent party event on Robben Island on a luxurious yacht.

The grand arrival took place on Wednesday last week, ahead of the ANC's 113th anniversary celebrations in Khayelitsha, which were held on Saturday.

In an interview with broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, Mantashe said the issue of Mbalula’s use of a private yacht was a sideshow which has hogged the limelight.

“What I read from it is that it should not be attributed to the ANC. It you want to make it the ANC decision, I will know that there is an element of mischief there. I will understand that because I am old enough to know that. The actual decision of the ANC is that a delegation of ANC would go to Robben Island and take various lessons there,” said Mantashe, a former secretary general of the party.

“If in the process one of the officials takes a yacht with a businessman to that place, it cannot be the ANC decision. It can be an issue of that official taking a yacht to go there. Ideally, everybody should be in that ferry, but there is this side show that attracts attention away from the focus of the visit.”

He said the matter of the “side show” would be discussed by the National Executive Committee of the party.

“We will deal with that when we will meet. When we meet, we will discuss and try to find out what happened because it is not an NEC decision. That is where we sit. I am not running the administration, the organizing or the logistics If they take that decision that the secretary general must go in a yacht to Robben Island, they take that decision. It is within the ANC but it is not an ANC decision,” said Mantashe.

“The message it sends to all of us is our ability to be sensitive to perception. We must be sensitive to perception.”

Mantashe, who is also Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources said the focus of the Robben Island should not be shifted from the delegation including president of the ANC, Cyril Ramaphosa touring the historic site.

According to a Sunday Times report, Mbalula's yacht arrival stunned fellow ANC leaders and observers alike during an event that was meant to reflect on the painful history of the party's members who had been incarcerated during the apartheid era.

Other ANC leaders used the Robben Island Museum ferry, Sikhululekile while President Cyril Ramaphosa was flown to the island by helicopter for security reasons. The solemn commemoration was aimed at honouring political prisoners who spent years on the infamous island.

On Sunday evening, member of the ANC’s national executive committee Donald Selamolela told Newzroom Afrika that Mbalula is not involved in the logistics of his mode of transport.

“Do not put it on Mr Mbalula as a person. Mr Mbalula does not arrange his own movement when he is running the programme of the African National Congress. Put it on us as the ANC. Why did we make that separate arrangement for Mr Mbalula. The reason is, Mr Mbalula on the same day he was expected to address other various programmes,” said Selamolela.

“You didn’t want him to be on a ferry that would take time. It is true that it is expensive to use that type of a ferry that he use, but I must clarify that the respect that we have for our people, the commitment in terms of ensuring that our programme of reconnecting with our people …What you saw (on Saturday) is a culmination of various activities that we have been running here.”

Selamolela said he is not sure how much the ANC paid to procure the yacht for Mbalula’s use. However, the ANC NEC member insisted that Mbalula had nothing to do with yacht.

The yacht in question reportedly belongs to Fernando Acafrao, a businessman who has secured multiple multimillion-rand government contracts.

His company, Mobile Satellite Technologies, is known for providing mobile clinics to provincial governments.

The company has faced scrutiny in the past; in 2015, it was reported that two companies, including Mobile Satellite Technologies, were supposed to deliver four mobile health units to the KwaZulu-Natal health department but only succeeded in providing two, costing the province R61 million by August 2016.

IOL