Following on ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula’s remarks about the party having lied for former President Zuma about the nature of the upgrades to his Nkandla home, the erstwhile police minister has objected that the upgrades were in fact necessary.
During Zuma’s incumbency there was considerable derision over the construction of a large swimming pool on the property. It had been justified as a necessary measure to counter the threat of fire. Nathi Nhleko as police minister had been a prominent exponent of this narrative.
As reported in the Daily Friend (‘It WAS a swimming pool actually – Mbalula’, 10 January), Mbalula recently conceded that the structure was a swimming pool, and that the party had lied about it.
Nhleko has countered with a voice note (it is not immediately apparent whom he was addressing) in which he claims that the structure was a firepool, and that his original statement was correct. ‘If he says I was lying, you need to counter me with something that says, ‘Here is proof that whatever you said was not true’. Up until this point, nobody can do that because nobody has the facts at hand.’
He also lamented the state of the ANC. He added that Mbalula as Secretary General was the ‘worst of its kind’ in the organisation’s history.
Meanwhile, Vincent Magwenya, spokesman for President Ramaphosa, responded to a request for comment by saying ‘any attempt to draw the President into some form of revision of the matter is an exercise in futility.’