READER LETTER | Mbalula, Malema birds of a feather

It's a pity that both Julius Malema and Fikile Mbalula are birds of a feather that flock together. They both suffer from “verbal diarrhoea” without giving a second thought about how a person on the other end will receive their scathing remarks.

They think that in so doing they'll emulate their predecessor, the late Peter Mokaba. The ANC is busy gradually writing its own obituary without calling such wayward individuals, like its secretary-general, to order and it is a trend I witnessed even during Jacob Zuma's era.

He, too, was nonchalant when party members spoke as they pleased in his defence. It was the same Mbalula who shouted on top of his voice when his predecessor Ace Magashule was elected secretary-general of the party at the last elective conference. Prior to his election, Mbalula said that Magashule was going to run down the party due to corruption scandals surrounding him. But he seems to be worse than Magashule.

His recent lambasting of enterprise minister Pravin Gordhan in public was uncalled for. And as long as the sitting president keeps mum about the recent developments, I fear for the worst. It seems as if ANC presidents, who get elected to top positions by their "favourites", fail to take action when their darlings go astray.

When you are a secretary-general of any organisation, you are like its engine. All starts and ends with you, which unfortunately is a fact that the likes of Mbalula are not aware of.

Samuel Radebe, Heilbron, Free State