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Tito Mboweni

Johannesburg — Former Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni has labelled Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane a “cowboy” after he seemingly wrongly claimed that he had Cabinet backing for a contentious decision to institute a judicial investigation to probe banks.

Mboweni, an ANC national executive committee (NEC) member, told party members during a post-election assessment meeting in Johannesburg that it was bizarre for Cabinet to be getting concerned about what happens to one company (the Guptas’ Oakbay Resources and Energy).

Speaking frankly, he said the ANC had “lost the elections” and no explanation could justify the loss.

“All the major cities have been lost to the opposition and we are now the official opposition,” he said.

He said, economically, out of every R100, the ANC had lost R85, which he described as being a governing party without economic power.

Speaking at the Houghton Primary School, Mboweni said the arrogance among some ANC leaders was costing the organisation dearly and something urgent had to be done ahead of the 2019 elections.

“After the elections, we said we would reflect, humble ourselves and go back to the voters. But that is not happening,” he said, while making a reference to Minister Mosebenzi Zwane’s latest comments.

He accused Zwane of behaving like a “cowboy”.

Mboweni said as the election results were being released, he received a call from members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

“They said we could help run Joburg, but Zuma had to go. I told them I would pass the message, which I did. They [other ANC leaders] told me we didn’t want to talk to those young people. We ended up with Herman [Mashaba],” he said.

The EFF has always made it clear that they did not like Mashaba taking over Johannesburg, but voted for him as mayor to unseat the ANC, which they described as being the worst devil.

“Young people have left us. The EFF is here to stay and they are biting us. These young people are energetic and have been trained by the ANC,” he said.

The factions within the ANC were very serious and had caused serious divisions, he said.

“In 2012, the NEC passed a resolution to do away with factions. But the same NEC was factional.”

In alluding to the alleged votes for cash, Mboweni said he heard that there was a lot of money at the conference.

“Where did these people get the money from? At least I know where it is printed,” he said, jokingly.

He said SMSes were already doing the rounds regarding the suggestion of an early conference by the ANC Youth League.

He said the messages alleged that the league wanted to test the waters and were aimed at ensuring that when that happened, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma would be elected as president of the ANC, while Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza would be her deputy. — AFP