The Free State African National Congress (ANC) on Monday decried former finance minister and struggle stalwart Trevor Manuel's criticism of the former Free State premier Ace Magashule's failure to convert Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's Brandfort home into a museum.

At a memorial service in Cape Town last Thursday, Manuel railed against corruption and contrasted the speed with which Magashule's Free State government proceeded with the controversial Estina deal, while it failed, since 2007, to convert Madikizela-Mandela's home into a museum.

"If the motivation is self-enrichment, then you get the dilly-dallying we're seeing at the moment," said Manuel.

The Free State ANC's William Bulwane said Manuel's comments were "unfortunate and reckless", adding that "it undermines the spirit of unity and renewal".

He said the ANC must repudiate Manuel. He also complained about raising such matters at memorial services.

R3m budget

Magashule, the ANC's long-standing leading figure in the Free State, was elected the party's secretary general in December last year.

Madikizela-Mandela, who passed away last Monday, was banished to the house in question in Brandfort in 1977, where she spent close to ten years excluded from society and with just the most basic amenities. The house is currently in a derelict condition despite pledges by the government to turn it into a museum.

"There was no failure on the part of the provincial government to build the museum," Bulwane said.

He said that after Madikizela-Mandela left the house, another family moved in. The provincial government was in negotiations with that family to relocate them.

The project was first announced in 2007 and R3m was budgeted for it.

He said before 2012 there was "too much pressure because of the ANC centenary" and funds were redirected to the restoration of the Waaihoek Wesleyan Church in Bloemfontein, where the ANC was founded in 1912.

2019 deadline

Bulwane said national government had been approached to help with funding for the museum.

"That project is not stopping," he said. "It is still going to be built, the only things is time."

He said by March 2019 the project would be finished.

"There is no provincial government that has failed," he said. "There was no failure on the part of anybody."

"It is still going to be built, the only things is time."