By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
A demonstration of the ‘fire pool’ at Nkandla. File photo.
The African National Congress (ANC) has admitted to lying in parliament to defend former president Jacob Zuma’s R3.9 million “fire pool” at his home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.
The admission was made by the party’s secretary general, Fikile Mbalula, at Mjindi Town Hall in Barberton, Mpumalanga, on Sunday.
The party is hosting a series of events in the province before its 112th birthday rally at Mbombela Stadium on Saturday.
The event comes just a month after Zuma announced his intention to campaign for the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe party instead of the ANC ahead of the 2024 general elections.
He has been on a campaign trail for the newly formed MK party.
Mbalula said the ANC has always tolerated and stood by Zuma’s side.
“We defended former president Zuma. We even went to Parliament and said a swimming pool is a fire pool. The police minister was sweating because it is difficult to explain a lie… People have lost their careers because of that thing.
The former public protector Thuli Madonsela found in her Secure in Comfort report that Zuma should repay some of the taxpayers’ money which was spenton security measures at Nkandla.
Madonsela found that Zuma had improperly benefited from an excessive government upgrade to his home and should repay a “reasonable percentage” of about R20 million for some of the work.
The Constitutional Court, led by former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, released a scathing judgement against Zuma, but the ANC stood by him. Today Zuma says he can’t stand President Cyril Ramaphosa, who doesn’t even have any court judgements against him,” said Mbalula.
Mbalula said the ANC will still approach the courts to reclaim the uMkhonto weSizwe name.
He said that the party would soon announce its decision on Zuma’s decision to endorse another political organisation while he still holds ANC membership.
The leader of civil rights movement NotInMyName, Siyabulela Jentile, said they were deeply concerned about Mbalula’s comments, because he had openly admitted to defending corruption in parliament.
Jentile said Mbalula’s admission — and lying under oath by extension — was an insult to the Constitution, parliament and to South Africans who put their faith, fears and aspirations in the hands of politicians.
“The [secretary general’s] statements make us wonder [on] how many other occasions the ruling party has had to lie in defence of their presidents, both past and present — most notably, the Phala Phala farmgate scandal,” he said.
ANC Head of Presidency Sibongile Besani defended Mbalula’s remarks about the fire pool saying that the ANC didn’t lie to protect Zuma and that they “never said the swimming pool was a fire pool”.
Last week, ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji that school “dropout” Zuma should be “grateful” to the ANC, which had supported him through several scandals.
Meanwhile the chairperson of the ANC’s Peter Mokaba region in Limpopo, John Mpe, has criticised Zuma’s involvement in the newly formed political party, uMkhonto we Sizwe.
He described Zuma as a power monger who doesn’t want to be led by others.
Mpe also called on members of the ANC to take after the former president of the ANC Youth League, Peter Mokaba, and allow themselves to be led by others.
He said Mokaba never became a disgruntled member of the ANC even after he was not appointed a minister by then-president Nelson Mandela.
“All of us from the generation of young people who became active in the 80s, we always believed that should we be in power, Peter Mokaba would be a minister because we saw ourselves through him that if he is in government is as much as the generation of young people is represented.
“But despite the role that he has played, he never occupied such a position and even when he was left out of cabinet, he has never mobilized people to form an organisation or to protest for his exclusion.
“Peter Mokaba allowed himself to be led, and even for others, if they have not been elected from conferences, they should accept the outcome of conferences and continue to be members. We did not join to be leaders. We joined to be members.”
Mpe delivered the keynote address at Mokaba’s 65th birthday celebration in Mankweng outside Polokwane on Sunday. Mokaba was born on 7 January 1959 and died on 9 June 2002.