PARTY POLITICS
ANC fires Carl Niehaus from Luthuli House after ‘false statements’ fiasco
Carl Niehaus has been summarily dismissed from his job in Luthuli House after he tried to lay charges of theft and corruption against the ANC’s ‘top five’.
On Wednesday night ANC staffer and suspended ANC member Carl Niehaus distributed an “Urgent Media Alert” inviting the media to witness him laying charges against the ANC’s hierarchy — excluding his suspended boss, Secretary-General Ace Magashule — at the Johannesburg Police Station on behalf of disgruntled party staffers, but by Thursday night Niehaus was without a job.
The party accused him of making false statements when he said he was representing other staffers, so he backtracked by saying he would lay the charges in his personal capacity, even though he maintained that aggrieved staff members helped him draft the statement.
In his letter of dismissal, party general manager Febe Potgieter wrote that in his letter earlier in the day, Niehaus did not provide “any cogent reasons for the ANC to arrive at any conclusion other than that the employment relationship between you and the organisation has completely and irretrievably broken down”.
She wrote: “This letter serves as notice of your summary dismissal as an employee of the ANC. You can collect your personal belongings from ANC security at Luthuli House tomorrow between 10h00 and 11h00.”
Niehaus was also informed that he had the right to appeal against his dismissal through a notice of appeal with the grounds for such an appeal set out in the letter.
Potgieter wrote that Niehaus never distanced himself from the media alert as he had been “invited to do”. Instead, he threatened to go to the police if the outcomes of the ANC’s talks with staff were not satisfactory. The dispute has been dragging on for more than three months while the party looks for cash to pay salaries.
It’s not clear why Niehaus fought so hard to keep a job that hasn’t paid his salary in months, and when it wasn’t clear what his job description was other than that he was working in suspended ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule’s office. Even Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula was asking this on Twitter.
Niehaus must have had a sense of déjà vu: in 2009 he tendered his resignation after a short stint as party spokesperson. He was pushed when a string of lies and alleged fraud was exposed by the Mail & Guardian newspaper.
On Thursday morning Niehaus intended to lay complaints of fraud, corruption and theft against the party’s top five (Magashule excluded), according to the draft complaints statement, over the non-payment of staff salaries and over the party’s failure to pay over their Unemployment Insurance Fund and several other deductible contributions.
In the complaint, he also said he was doing this on behalf of a list of complainants, which was not attached to the electronic version.
ANC staff, however, distanced themselves from the complaint.
In a statement by spokesperson Pule Mabe, the ANC called Niehaus’s plans “opportunistic and anti-ANC behaviour”.
Mabe said the ANC had interacted with staff representatives and they “have unequivocally confirmed that Carl Niehaus does not represent them nor does he have the mandate to act on their behalf”. He said Niehaus’s “desperate lust for publicity and his latest withdrawal of the said fraudulent statement does not augur well with Carl’s self-claimed credentials as a decorated freedom fighter”.
He said Niehaus appeared on social media and public platforms where he was divisive and “devoid of revolutionary discipline”. The biggest insult of all, however, in Niehaus’s view, was Mabe accusing him of applying “the tactics of one desperate opposition party lacking a clear programme for the upcoming local government elections and pinning their hopes on a liquidated ANC”. He said Niehaus was thus following in the DA’s footsteps.
Niehaus, in his response to the ANC’s threat earlier in the day to terminate his employment contract, said it was illegal for the ANC to terminate his employment without a disciplinary hearing, and the two-and-a-half hours the party gave him to respond to their threat to dismiss him summarily was “draconian, and most unreasonable”.
He said he postponed the laying of charges after a conversation with the representative of the ANC’s staff, Mvusi Madala, who persuaded him to hold back on his action while the party was trying to negotiate solutions.
Niehaus lashed out at the ANC, saying: “The intimidatory sledge hammer that you have now brought out against me is intended to intimidate any other ANC staff members from taking a similar course of action.”
In January, the ANC handed him notice of its intention to suspend him after he verbally attacked Deputy Secretary-General Jessie Duarte in public. He, however, remained in the ANC’s employ until this week. DM
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It appears that a faction of the ANC grabbed the 1st opportunity to rid themselves of this embarrassment.
What embarrassment? Niehaus is a nonentity
The embarrassment is the ANC and those members who have brought the party to where it now is
I’m tickled by the mans letterhead.
Ambassador! WTAF
the ANC is a farce, collapsing in on itself. A great political body with nothing left to say for itself and very little to show after 20 years of government. Now there’s not even money left to spend on it’s operations. All the cash, stolen or otherwise got pissed out at pretentious restaurants and blown on bling at Louis Vuitton.
I’m very disappointed
You know that you are at the bottom of the food chain when not even the ANC will have you.
Rock bottom-and curiously hilarious. This is pure schadenfreude !
The ANC is really a confused lot. They fire Niehaus for bringing the party into disrepute, but are not only paying their employees on time, but also stealing from them by making deductions from their salaries yet not paying them over to the relevant authorities. The sooner these jokers get kicked out the better for the country.
Shame! And to think that his mother has just died again! Has the ANC no humanity?
That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all week! Made my day!
Thanks Bruce!
Every dog has his day. And so endeth the lesson!
Poor old Carl, the more he tries to make himself relevant the more irrelevant he becomes. The ANC doesn’t exactly go for quality employees so being fired by them is quite something.
Niehaus gone? I’m not so sure.
What i find ironic is that the ANC , that so-called champion of worker rights just summarily Niehaus without conducting a proper disciplinary hearing in terms of labour law.
I’m afraid they’re going to be forced to re-instate him.
What I like about C N is that he is a law above the law of the anc, or so he deluded himself
You’re 100% correct. Where was the HR department when the managers decided to sack him? Perhaps they weren’t at work because they haven’t been paid?
At least someone was working from home.
It’s difficult to decide who is worse, Carl Niehaus or Pule Mabe.
Move on and out Whitey. At least the article was good for a belly jingle. You’ve really reached your sell by date. Retire gracefully and reflect on your memories. At least you’re leaving when still at the top
I don’t who is the more verbose and embarrassing of the two so-called”spokespersons”(one now apparently dismissed?) of the glorious movement- each is enough to bring the party into even greater disrepute on account of utterances that fly in the face of the facts. Interesting to see what happens next- will the dismissal be a cause for litigation and who besides Magashule will support the embattled Niehaus?
What did everyone expect of him?
He comes from the same part of South Africa as that other ass, the late Eugene Tereblanche. The Education Department from those distant past days in that part of South Africa obviously didn’t provide a Privileged Education to the platelanders.
I wonder if his underpants are green with holes in them too?
I think the thing to remember is that laws are meant for law-abiding citizens. If you are not law-abiding then the laws don’t apply to you and if you have enough money, or somebody will fund you, then you can spend the money in endless litigation to prove that theory
Comrade Carl, how could they do this to you after your wonderful contribution to the ANC?
How dare they send you packing without even bothering to follow their own employment laws?
It is a shocking disregard for a man of your stature and you should fight it out at the CCMA.
I hope you are reinstated or win big compensation payola.
Sting ’em comrade – you can’t trust the ANC
What a joke, the last remaining white person in the ANC gets fired. The most racial polarizing party in history sheds its last (rouge) white member.
The ANC is the embarrassment, not just Carl.
Maybe the ANC is trying to save one salary or one retrenchment package.
Fire the idiot embarrassing white boy – all the idiot embarrassing black cadres – as you were, chaps and chapettes, your jobs are secure.
The saddest bit is that both complainant and the respondent are useless lying thieves…the only question I’m unclear on is which is worse.