POOL’S ERRAND
Damage control — Mantashe plays down ‘excited’ Mbalula admission over Nkandla security upgrades
ANC National Chair Gwede Mantashe on Tuesday raised concerns about party Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula’s utterances which have put the governing party in the hot seat yet again.
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula’s comments about how the party concealed Jacob Zuma’s misdemeanours during his presidency have prompted an unfavourable response from fellow top 7 official Gwede Mantashe.
Instead of supporting these statements, Mantashe said Mbalula got “carried away” adding that the Secretary-General should be careful of what he says as a leader in the governing party.
“He saw your cameras and he got taken away and said things he shouldn’t have said. To me, this is what we need to deal with internally. When you lead, you count your words so that you don’t catch fire,” says Mantashe.
“He will learn in the trade, and he was just excited and said things he should not have said. As a leader, you must count your words so that you don’t catch fire. But he will learn,” Mantashe reiterated.
The ANC National Chair was speaking to SABC News on the sidelines of a visit to the AmaNdebele Royal House in Kwa-Mhlanga, Mpumalanga. This is part of an array of activities which will take place leading up to the party’s 112th birthday celebrations in Mbombela on Saturday.
Mbalula caused a row over comments he made on Sunday when he revealed that the party had misled Parliament to protect Zuma. Mbalula said the party lied in order to support Zuma when he was under fire for the upgrades done on his Nkandla Homestead in KwaZulu-Natal.
“We went to parliament and opened an ad hoc committee and said a swimming pool is a fire pool. The [then] police minister [Nathi Nhleko] was sweating, seeing that this was a lie, because it is difficult to explain lies. People have lost their careers because of that thing.”
Read more in Daily Maverick: ‘No court in the country interrogated Nkandla report’ – Nhleko
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.
He further went on to explain that his utterances should be understood as “political rally rhetoric” and reiterated that it would be important to also support Ramaposa in the case that he is “overrun by ANC enemies who are engaged in baseless, untested or unproven claims”.
“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.
“First, we must agree that it was the duty of the organisation to fully understand the facts upon which the opposition parties base their corruption accusations and charges that followed before it could act.
“As such, the ANC, as I so eloquently argued, was duty bound to [allow] parliamentary structures to investigate the serious accusations.
“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.
“I fairly reported that the matter was ventilated in the courts, as it was supposed to be, and the chips fell where the Constitutional Court said they should fall.”
Read more in Daily Maverick: Zuma’s new political party trick and the head-scratching horseplay of Men Saying Things
In 2014 then Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found that Zuma “unduly benefited” from upgrades to his private Nkandla residence in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). 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. DM
I sit in the gallery with my popcorn and cola…
Make space for me please Senzo. This plot is getting thicker than Mbalula, and that’s saying something.
Thank, great analogy, made me laugh!
Make enough popcorn! I’m sure there is more.
Mr Fix Fokkol piling more farce on top of farce, and quite ineloquently at that, contrary to his smug self-assessment. He doesn’t need Greedy Mantashe’s help here, though it does bolster the farce.
And Fikile’s next public appearance will be on The Muppet Show
Fikile for President
“As such, the ANC, as I so eloquently argued, was duty bound…..” blah blah blah. The SG and front-line spokesman is as eloquent as a whoopee cushion. Ruminator has completely lost control of his party, and the situation will slide even further as the election approaches. This is a party on the skids, a dead horse and an international embarrassment.
Mantashe is trying to sweep this under the carpet, Nkhelo was lying and Mbalula is telling the truth.
When you lead, you count your words so that you don’t catch fire, says Mantashe, but if you do, we can use the firepool to help out.
Haha 😂
“As a leader, you must count your words so that you don’t catch fire.”
Pun intended?
He was getting confused with “pants on fire”.
We know that the ANC are not truthful. But to admit in public that they lied in parliament, is just priceless. Just how retarded are they?
It might be advisable for the ANC to insist that Mbalula read out the following Disclaimer following any public statements he makes:
‘ It is common knowledge that I suffer from both verbal diarrhea and, had I bothered to study for and take the test, a Moron.
That I hold the position within the ANC that I do is an embarrassment to the Party (this in a party which is immune to embarrassment) and am the butt of all jokes within the corridors of Luthuli House (most of which need to be explained to me)
Accordingly, the views & opinions which I have just expressed (including those on X, formerly known as Twitter) are not the views & opinions of those of the ANC and instead should instead be considered vomit with an equivalent value attached thereto’
🤣🤣🤣
I believe there are two very large bulk mains that go past nkandla… no need for a fire pool
The egg dance by Mbalula during an interview by John Perlman at 702 just confirmed what a useless and incompetent character this guy is. Yet, what is more frightening is the fact that Ramaphosa appears to be happy to work with morons like him and Mantashe.
The bigmouth, useless mr fix fokkol finally overstepped a line that even Gwede thinks damage control is required.
Interesting times indeed!!
The farce just gets better and better…. Mbalula “so eloquently” (his own words) tells the truth that the ANC told lies about Nkandla, and set up a Committee that would protect the President from the “malevolent” opposition (as Mbulala says, they were duty bound to submit the matter to Parliament!), and then Nhleko objects that he did not tell lies to the Committee, and Mantashe says that Mbalula said things that he should not have said (“as a leader, you must count his words, so that you don’t catch fire).
Keep it up, guys!
At this rate, it will take approximately five years for someone to eloquently confess to defending their president in the Phala-Phala scandal
The joke is on the SA taxpayer. We paid this uneloquent windbag’s salary for years and footed the bill for him to fly to RWC in his yellow pjs. I guess theoretically ANC pays his salary now, but indirectly still the SA taxpayer. SA taxpayers also include the unemployed who pay of 14% on most of their meagre purchases. Yet come election time the same fools will be re-elected.
When do we eventually press the brakes we are paying almost half our income on tax to support this nonsense, Mantashe must explain the Bosasa security upgrade in his farm again, Zweli Mkhize must explain the covid advert deals whilst we pay loans to IMF we are tired
It’s almost like I can’t be bothered to comment anymore. How much more proof does anybody need to realise it’s time to take the keys of the kingdom back from these idiots. They are not serious people. This kindergarten of cadres are an abomination that must be removed from public office, unceremoniously chucked in gaol and for the key to that prison lost for evermore.
Too true! How soon?
The minister says – “First, we must agree that it was the duty of the organisation to fully understand the facts upon which the opposition parties base their corruption accusations and charges that followed before it could act” – REALLY – a schoolchild would understand the large scale looting , the president acknowledged this and the Zondo commission and OUTA among others have exposed this BUT no one is in jail . How can any rational person expect the citizens to vote for people that steal their money and their future and a government that has not put any of the scoundrels in jail for 20 years without parole – Action is what counts ! , not spin doctor words and a litany of false promises over 30 years . For the president to proudly trumpet how many grants are paid each month is an embarrassment , as firstly, where does the money come from , and secondly grants are a clear indicator of failure in important areas.
Mbalula is pure standup comedy gold. It’s a pity he’s unaware of the high regard in which he’s held by fans of the art.
I thought the kingdom should only have one fool, not all of them.
“as I so eloquently argued”
Are those Mbalula’s words? Am I reading that right? I actually LOL’d now. There is nothing eloquent about this man not to even speak of his utterances nor reflections of them.
How does one countenance the use of the word “ eloquently” in a sentence uttered by foot-and-mouth Mbalula?
So according to Mantashe he should learn to lie better. What better place to learn than within the ANC with Mantashe as his mentor.
Unreal that Mantashe takes issue with what Mabula disclosed i.e. that’s the problem in his devious and warped mind and NOT the fact that he, as SG of the anc at the time, together with all the putrid anc, went along with the lie and deception in order to protect the thief-in-chief. This disgusting, thieving, vile and stinking anc party and government, in every way, are nothing but an evil and cancerous curse on SA. We have to get rid of these scumbags who are stealing this country blind and destroying it.!!
Well let’s be honest here, when have the corrupt ANC government ever told the truth about anything?? O’wait a moment, they just told the truth in public that they “the corrupt ANC government” lied to Parliament to protect their president! That’s besides all the other lies that were told in JZ’s wasted 9 years for the country”yes”, but a very very profitable 9 years for the Zuma/Gupta clan & friends!
That’s is why the ANC government is falling apart, they just a bunch of thugs that want more money than the next person that they are stealing so much taxpayer’s money & spending so much taxpayers money on luxury houses / cars / and personal holidays that their is nothing left to actually look after the country! And the sad thing is that it will never change while the corrupt ANC stay in power!!! They just a bunch of thieving gangster and thugs!!
Looks like the comrades are stabbing each other in the back!
ComRAIDS! – Please correct your spelling
Mantashe can play it down as much as he likes – he should bear Lincolns quote in mind –
‘You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”
Surely even the blind followers of this gang of thieves can see how they’re being led by their noses?
The anc has been living a lie for the last 30 years or so – it is catching up with them –
you can see by the state of the country – ruined every SOE , corruption , incompetence ,ministers talk rubbish most of the time , these old parasites need to be retired and get out of the publics face – spending public money on a swimming pool and say it is for fire protection – only a dead brain will believe such nonsense –
and yet you get these fools still trying to justify this theft –
If you lie with your fingers crossed, its still a lie. How can any right minded individual excuse Mbalula for the gaffe he uttered in parliament, the highest body in the land that should be above reproach. Then again, the ANC have been past masters at deceit and false promises
“When you lead, you count your words so that you don’t catch fire,” WTF is that? WTF is that supposed to mean?
Another pearl from the ANC Book of Parables?
They can’t speak a sensible sentence, can’t count, they talk absolute gibberish & get paid handsomely to ruin the place & steal. How soon can we get rid of these cretins & get SA back on track?
Shame……what a disaster !Mantashe as well as Fekile FF should go !
“It is the way it is because I say so”
This is the ANC way.
Seems to me that these village idiots believe that they are smarter than everyone else. Eish
It’s the darker side of something called the “Dunning-Kruger effect,” a powerful shield that ensures that the more incompetent someone is at something, the less likely they are to realise their own incompetence, and therefore the less likely they are to engage in any objective introspection. The ANC is pervaded with bipeds that suffer from this type of mental block.