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| ANC secretary general, Fikile Mbalula. File photo by Madelene Cronje/M&G |
An angry ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula dropped a bombshell about the party lying in order to support then-president Jacob Zuma when he was under fire for the upgrades done on his Nkandla Homestead in KwaZulu Natal. The ANC and its top officials once heavily backed their former leader Jacob Zuma for the exorbitant funds spent on upgrades on his Nkandla Home.
In the ‘Secure in Comfort’ report, Madonsela recommended that Zuma pay back at least part of the estimated R246-million spent on the improvements to the property not related to security. However, senior ANC members continued to back Zuma with Nathi Nhleko using his powers to do so. During what became an infamous press briefing in 2015, Nhleko exonerated Zuma of all accountability over the upgrade costs at his Nkandla home. An Nkandla ad hoc committee which was formed to interrogate Madonsela’s findings adopted Nhleko’s report that Zuma was not liable to pay back public money spent on his Nkandla home.
Nhleko’s report contradicted that of Madonsela. In 2016, the Constitutional Court found that Zuma failed to uphold the Constitution when he ignored a state order to repay some of the government funds used for upgrading his private residence. The court also ruled that Parliament, which is dominated by the ruling African National Congress, had failed in its obligations by not holding Zuma to account. Mbalula reiterated how the party continued to stand by the former president despite this.
The ANC didn’t expel Jacob Zuma. Mbalula is among the ANC bigwigs who were displeased by Zuma’s decision to ditch the governing party and campaign for the uMkhonto Wesizwe party instead. In an announcement made in December, Zuma said he would be campaigning for the new MK party for the 2024 elections. Mbalula took to X on Monday evening to clarify his comments regarding Zuma’s fire pool, saying he was speaking just in case someone wants to deliberately twist his words. I made general statements about how the ANC ‘defended’ former President JZ when he was accused of corruption and other official misconduct connected with Nkandla.
Such a move was precisely to protect the ANC President from being unfairly overrun by the malevolent opposition. What is important to expose here is that by affording the President due process of law, which was his right under our constitution, the ANC was protecting its president.
