Free State MPAC chairperson and ANC councillor calls Mbalula 'factionalist'

Chabeli says she is not scared of the secretary-general

- By Bongani Mdakane

Firebrand Free State ANC councillor and MPAC chair Setshwana Chabeli has publicly labelled the party’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, “a hardcore and unrehabilitated factionalist with presidential ambitions”. She also shockingly branded him “weak” and accused him of spewing verbal diarrhoea.

Chabeli’s blistering attack, delivered via a stinging Facebook post, has electrified the province’s already volatile ANC dynamics and left Mbalula seething with anger.

Known throughout Free State for her fearless candour, Chabeli blasted Mbalula for “sowing division” and stoking factionalism fires in the province.

The flashpoint came after Mbalula wrapped up a memorial lecture for the late Andrew Mlangeni in Bethlehem last Saturday. Chabeli, a member of the Mahlatswetsa ANC branch and the deputy general secretary of the South African Youth Council, was forthright in her views.