Trade and Industry deputy minister Mzwandile Masina is set to undermine the ANC Guateng leadership in his support for President Jacob Zuma.

Masina, the former convenor of the ANC Youth League and the chairman of the party in Ekurhuleni said his region was “concerned” about Gauteng ANC chairman Paul Mashatile’s public statements on the Constitutional Court’s ruling on Nkandla.

Mashatile told a meeting of professionals last month in Pretoria that Zuma’s apology on Nkandla was not adequate.

Yesterday, Masina said his region supported the ANC’s national working committee’s decision that Zuma’s apology should be accepted.

“We have looked into the PEC [provincial executive committee] statement and we have come to a conclusion that where they say the president must do the honourable thing, in our interpretation as a region …the right thing to do for the president is to apologise and reprimand … those he needs to,” he said.

Masina said the ANC was not a federal organisation and that the higher structure was the NEC, not the PEC in this case.

“The other issue raised strongly is that REC is concerned about the ongoing posture of the provincial chairman. If you lead a structure you can’t go around saying ‘I’. We can’t have a leader who is ‘I’,” he said.

The ANC in Gauteng has come under fire for its position on Zuma that he should do the “right thing” following the Nkandla judgement.

The ANC in Free State, North West and Mpumalanga – whose chairmen and premiers are staunch Zuma supporters – have also attacked Gauteng.

Last month, the ANC Women’s League, Youth League and Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans in Gauteng also contradicted the province’s leaders on the Nkandla matter.

It has emerged that the Tshwane region agreed with Ekurhuleni that Zuma’s apology should be accepted.

Several sources also told  Sowetan  that Ekurhuleni, which does not support the position taken by the PEC, was working hard to win other regions to rebel against the provincial leadership under Mashatile.

Ekurhuleni is now seen to be working with Tshwane.

In March, the Gauteng PEC said Zuma’s apology was not adequate and he should do the “right thing”. They also said he should be hauled before the party’s integrity committee after the ConCourt found that he had violated the constitution.

The party’s extended national working committee (NWC) has come out in full support of Zuma, saying his apology should be accepted.

Tshwane ANC secretary Paul Majapelo said that there were branches of the party in Mamelodi, Soshanguve and Hammanskraal, among other places, that have supported the decision to accept Zuma and defend him going forward.

He refused to confirm that his region’s executive had accepted Zuma’s apology, saying branches of the region would hold meetings to discuss the report of the NWC.

ANC Gauteng spokesman Nkenke Kekana said all party structures would meet at the provincial general council at the weekend. He said they could not comment on the “faceless people who are pushing for the dissolution.