'Askari' Mkhwebane claims plot to set her alight as she steps into Mpumalanga nightmare

And that was before breakfast. 

The public cannot be blamed for observing that where former impeached Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane goes, trouble seems to follow.

Since jumping out of the frying pan as an MP for the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and into the fire of Jacob Zuma’s MK, she now fears for her very life, claiming fellow MK members cooked up a diabolical plan to literally “set her alight”.

Now suspended Abednego Mkhatshwa, the provincial secretary, on a leaked recording can be heard merrily stirring the pot like a Housewives of Mpumalanga contestant, while someone fetches the matches. 

Old-school violence.

‘An Askari’

“She is killing us. I’ve never seen such an askari [spy or malevolent agent],” the then provincial secretary can be heard riffing on the way home from an “after tears” for late MK member Sipho Vilakazi, who was buried in Sakhile township in Standerton.

“We are dying. The tyre must burn! I’m chasing Mkhwebane. I’m going to burn her… Burn her! The organisation will be free,” he declared, his ego-boundaries  flattened by funeral libations, his true self wagging his tongue.

But we must perhaps forgive him, he was grieving at the time.

Sunday World has been on top of the sordid saga from the get-go and broke the story of the plot to “necklace” Mkhwebane.

Mkhatshwa later responded that obviously he had meant this all metaphorically and that his words had been “taken literally when he meant something else”.

A bit like Malema singing “Kill the Boer”, we assume.

‘Our hearts are heavy’

On Friday Mkhwebane released a statement to the detachments and later the media.

In it she expressed that it was “with a heavy heart but resolute in spirit” that she was dealing with “a malicious audio recording circulated by the Mpumalanga Provincial Secretary, Abednego Mkhatshwa, wherein he issues direct assassination threats against my life and fabricates outrageous lies to tarnish my reputation” [unblemished as a morning blossom in spring].

On Thursday Mkhatshwa and MK convener Charles Nkuna got the chop and were issued notices of suspension. This after the “Mpumalanga Provincial Detachment” of MK had had an “extended detachment meeting”in Mbombela and commanded it.

The location — in case anyone wondered — was the five-star Cycad Lodge and Chalets “your luxury stay in the Lowveld”, according to MK Mpumalanga command.

The letter to Mkhatshwa reads “this follows a series of defiance and disregard [sic] of the Mpumalanga Provincial Detachment. 

“Failure to execute your duties since appointment, and recently a recording wherein you cast a series of aspersions. And your unprecedented threat to burn the Mpumalanga Provincial Chairperson alive [our italics].”

Turf war

The turf war began when former chairperson Mary Phadi gave up on MK after Mkhwebane strolled into town.

The “disunity” has spilled over since Phadi walked. At the time Mkhatshwa had joined forces with Mkhwebane to oust her. 

Zuma then fired Phadi over allegations that she had been involved in an “assasination plot” and for financial misconduct. And then the snake ate it’s tail, or might still be in the process of doing so as we speak.

Floyd’s MK hangover

Meanwhile Floyd Shivambu, the convener of the Afrika Mayibuye Movement, announced on Friday the immediate removal of Nolubabalo Mcinga as the first deputy president.

She was accused of holding an “unauthorised meeting” with Jacob Zuma without a mandate. 

uBaba strikes again.

Shivambu was ousted as secretary-general of the MK after crossing over to the party after a shattering break-up with lifelong comrade, EFF leader Julius Malema.

Mcinga was accused of meeting Phadi “purporting to make commitments on behalf of the movement without sanction, authority or delegation”.

Mayibuye was not “an employment agency” but “a people-founded movement, said Shivambu, adding that it would “not engage in media interviews or commentary regarding the matter”.

‘Like normal comrades’

After the leak of the threatening audio Mkhatshwa brushed it all off, saying to Sunday World, “you know how after-tears can be”. 

“It was very late and Mkhwebane’s people insisted that we be driven to Bronkhorstspruit for a sleepover. It was already in the early hours of the next day when this happened. We agreed, not knowing it was a trap,” he told Sunday World.

“On the way, we held conversations like normal comrades concerned about our movement in Mpumalanga. To my shock, days later I received a recording, and someone told me blatantly ‘sikubambile’ (we got you).”

It was his voice, yes, but this thing about setting Mkhwebane alight, “look, we have a way of speaking as comrades. The words burn or kill were never meant to be literal. 

‘Out of touch’

“You can ask around — when we say ‘lo ngiyamushisa’, it means I’m going to spill the beans on them. That’s like killing their career,” Mkhatshwa said. 

He let it be known that in the meantime he intended to “deal” with the driver who had recorded the conversation.

Mkhatshwa is accused of spreading the word that Mkhwebane was “out of touch” with the party’s grassroots and that she had “not done anything to strengthen the structures on the ground”.

The man in the middle

Mkhatshwa said he had even contemplated reporting Mkhwebane to the Big Guy — Bid Daddy — Msholozi — Jacob Zuma — “the presidency of MK” — as he described the seat of power in the party.

Mkhwebane has since lodged a criminal case with the Bronkhorstspruit SAPS.

Among some of the claims that have been made and which Mkhwebane has said are entirely false is that she was promised R10-million to “sabotage the party from within”.

This is broken telephone stompie-pick-up gossip about the R10-million gratuity Mkhwebane was hoping to cash out on her way out as Public Protector. But her impeachment put a stop to that and froze that pie in the sky.

In 2024 Mkhwebane was struck a fatal blow when the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that she was not entitled to such as she had left the office in disgrace.

Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, arguing on behalf of Office of the Public Protector in the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria in August, highlighted that Mkhwebane was the only Public Protector to be impeached for misconduct and incompetence, and was not in the same position as previous incumbents of the office. Advocate Dali Mpofu had defended Mkhewbane in this instance.

Mkhwebane now lives with eternal vigilance.

In politics you make your own bed. DM