Former Minister of Police Nathi Nhleko has left the ANC. File Picture
Former Minister of Police Nathi Nhleko is the latest politician from the ruling party to jump ship after another former parliamentarian quit more than weeks ago.
However, Nhleko has not so far indicated whether he was joining another party or not. But he said he was jumping ship because the ANC has lost political direction.
In a letter to senior ANC leaders Nhleko said he was unhappy with a number of things in the party.
Nhleko had a fallout with ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula after the latter publicly said they lied about the Nkandla report a few years ago to protect former President Jacob Zuma.
This followed a parliamentary inquiry into the R250 million spent in upgrading Zuma’s homestead in Nkandla a few years ago.
Mbalula said Nhleko was sweating in parliament when he had to change the swimming pool into a firepool.
This was in a bid to clear Zuma of any wrongdoing on Nkandla.
The Nkandla judgment by the Constitutional Court at the time confirmed the powers of the Public Protector that her findings were binding.
This was after ANC MPs had on several occasions questioned the powers of then Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.
But Nhleko said on Monday he was leaving the ANC, a party he joined at a young age in the 1970s.
In the letter he makes reference to comments by Mbalula. Mbalula made the comments early this year after Zuma joined uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.
“In the recent attack mounted against my person, by a Mr Fikile Mbalula, a Secretary-General of the ANC; about what he called ‘my sweating’ , ‘the firepool narrative’ and what he called were ‘lies to protect the former president. He closed his attack by stating that people lost their careers because of this thing’,” said Nhleko.
He said the claims made by Mbalula in relation to Nkandla were not accurate. He insisted that research was done on the project.
Nhleko said what has made him to leave the ANC was that the party has changed from what it was in terms of policy direction.
He said State-Owned Entities (SOEs) were being privatised by government.
“The trend of gradually dismantling SOEs and subsequently privatising them covertly is exemplified by the situation at Transnet. Transnet transport volumes exceeded 220 million tons in 2018, by 2022 this figure had dwindled to nearly 170m tons.”
He added that the austerity measures implemented by government have had far-reaching implications and this includes cutting social spending, He said the old age grant which used to be increased by 8% annually was now increased to 4%. Further cuts were projected for the next three years.
He said the structural reforms implemented were premised from the International Monetary Fund.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics