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Johannesburg – Ekurhuleni Mayor Mzwandile Masina has seemingly backtracked from a comment he made in October, where he said he would resign should Cyril Ramaphosa be elected as the new ANC president.
In October, Masina told News24: "I will never serve under Cyril." But on Wednesday morning, he seemingly changed his mind, and said he was "going nowhere".
READ: I will not serve under Ramaphosa - Ekurhuleni Mayor Mzwandile Masina
This is not the first time the controversial mayor has "forked off" from hot-headed statements only to change his stance later on.
In December 2013, while he was the national convenor of the ANC Youth League, Masina was quoted as saying that National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa general secretary Irvin Jim must "f*** off".
Masina later came out saying that he had been misquoted, and that he had said "fork off".
The following year, in April, Masina again "forked off" from an initial comment he made on Instagram, after posting a picture of former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils and former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge.
The caption read: "The ANC gave these two people an opportunity to be known. They mess up. One hoe fired by Pres Mbeki and the other resign in protest after Pres a Mbeki was recalled. Now they miss television do much that they convening some lousy media conference to discourage pple from voting our movement. Pple died for freedom don’t be fooled by these two loosens [sic]."
Masina later apologised and said he didn’t mean to offend anyone, and had meant to say "who" instead of "hoe".
'I can never serve under Cyril'
The DA has also claimed that, in May 2015, Masina was seen mouthing the words "I will f*** you up" to DA MP Geordin Hill-Lewis in Parliament.
The then-chairperson, Thoko Didiza, claimed to not have seen or heard anything, and pledged to investigate.
And now it again seems that the Mayor of Ekurhuleni has backtracked, tweeting this morning that he was going nowhere.
In October, Masina was adamant that he would resign should Ramaphosa be elected as president of the party.
''I will leave. I can never serve under Cyril. I respect him as my older brother, as a leader. [But] I just don’t believe in this group he belongs to. So, he can lead. I will be out,'' he said.
Masina said he would also step down as mayor and regional chair if the majority of branches in his region nominated Ramaphosa, instead of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
''It means I am not a leader. I can’t lead people who don’t listen to me. It’s politics."
''This is not just a presidential race, it’s politics,'' he said. Masina had not responded to phone calls or messages from News24.
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