Mbalula can’t spin out of ‘firepool’
Fikile Mbalula and other ANC officials are now at pains to say that his words were ‘a joke’ and ‘political rhetoric’
ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula’s admission that the party lied to protect former president Jacob Zuma in the firepool debacle has created an embarrassing furore on the eve of its 112th anniversary celebrations.
But the MPS and ministers involved in defending the spending of R3.9 million on the pool at Zuma’s Nkandla home from 2013 to 2016 are not likely to face any legal consequences for their actions.
Constitutional expert Dan Mafora told the Mail & Guardian this week that MPS enjoyed constitutional immunity from prosecution regarding their statements in the house.
Mbalula’s statement had also not revealed anything new from a legal perspective, because the constitutional court had, in 2016, made a ruling that the ANC’S attempts to overturn then public protector Thuli Madonsela’s Nkandla report were unlawful and unconstitutional.
“The Nkandla judgment by former chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng made the definitive finding that the [ANC] attempt to quash for- mer public protector Thuli Madonsela’s report was unlawful,” Mafora said.
“I don’t think this admission will change anything on the order, because what Mbalula said is pretty much what the court order said.”
At the time, police commissioner Riah Phiyega and police minister Nkosinathi Nhleko were at the forefront of attempting to spin Zuma’s way out of trouble, with both presenting reports to parliament depicting the swimming pool as a firepool.
Then public works minister Thulas Nxesi took the same stance, saying that a firepool had been “the most viable option for firefighting” at Zuma’s home, where the risk of fire had been increased by the close proximity of a large number of buildings with thatch roofs.
ANC members on the ad hoc committee appointed to the process also went out of their way to ensure that the minister’s explanation was accepted and endorsed, while the speaker of parliament — and the president — refused to accept Madonsela’s findings as being binding.
The constitutional court found that parliament’s resolution — which accepted the finding of a report by Nhleko exonerating Zuma from paying back state funds spent on nonsecurity upgrades to his home — was “inconsistent with the Constitution and unlawful”.
Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen recently said the party was preparing ethics committee complaints against ANC MPS who served on the Nkandla ad-hoc committee.
Steenhuisen said it was clear from Mbalula’s comments that they were dishonest and that he had lied to parliament, which was a violation of the ethics code.
Mbalula had said: “We went to parliament and opened an ad hoc committee and said a swimming pool is a firepool. The police minister was sweating, seeing that this was a lie, because it is difficult to explain lies. People have lost their careers because of that thing.”
Among those who sat on the committee are Cedric Frolick, Human Settlements Minister Mamoloko Kubayi, Doris Dlakude, Vincent Smith and Thandi Mahambehlala.
“Additionally, we will go through the court affidavits deposed by ANC officials and members of parliament in the various Nkandla court cases to determine if they have perjured themselves before our courts,” he said.
“We have always held the view that the ANC whitewashed the Nkandla matter, to date not a single person has been held accountable, but these latest admissions by the ANC only show that they cannot be trusted and must be voted out of office in this year’s election.”
The ANC’S national chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, is among those in the ANC who have been critical of Mbalula’s remarks.
Responding to journalists during events building up to the ANC’S 8 January celebration in Mpumalanga, Mantashe said Mbalula got “carried away” and “he 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. “He will learn in the trade, and he was just excited and said things he should not have said,” Mantashe said
Party officials do not believe the secretary general’s comments will hurt them going into the elections.
ANC electoral committee secretary Livhuwani Matsila said the remarks by Mbalula would not affect the party and that they have been taken out of context.
“He was trying to explain how the former president was supported by the party; his comments were taken way out of context. I don’t think this will result in us not getting support;
I think the opposite is the case. What it is saying is that we are a caring organisation that has always treated leaders with respect,” Matsila said.
He added that it would not be necessary for parliament to call Mbalula to further explain himself on who exactly lied about the Nkandla saga because it had already been to court and Zuma was directed to repay the money spent on his home.
“It’s done and dusted, there is nothing more to do, it’s on record what was irregular, which had to be corrected via payment.
“He was reiterating the judgment that has been passed by the competent authority which is the court of law. The misinterpretation is really uncalled for,” Matsila said.
Political analyst Ntsikelelo Breakfast said Mbalula’s comments were unfortunate because the party was supposed to be focusing on the 8 January event but the attention had shifted from that to Mbalula.
Breakfast said the joke that the secretary general cracked cost the ANC big time.
“He was saying the ANC lied to the people of this country on purpose; he said so with a straight face. He was saying the ANC does not take the fight against corruption seriously ... he should have never said that.”
He said because of the seriousness of the position he held in the ANC, Mbalula was too casual in his approach. “He’s too casual. In that clip, you can see he got carried away; he likes to be carried away. There are people who have been critical of him that he [made] a mistake, he is confirming what those people have been saying. He has the ability to lead, it’s just that he is too casual,” Breakfast said.
“He’s a senior member of the party. To be a secretary general of the ANC or any party is a big deal; he needs to come across as a senior.”
Mbalula has made several television appearances to defend and contextualise his remarks, and also took to social media with a rebuttal aimed at his critics.
In it, he said that his utterances needed to be understood as “political rally rhetoric and polemics” and that anybody who interpreted them as an admission that the ANC had helped assist Zuma defraud the state “must have his or her head checked”.
Mbalula said the matter had ended up before the courts as part of the ANC protecting its 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.
“The matter was resolved, and the then president had to cough up the misappropriated funds,” he said.
“The ANC did not use its resources to satisfy any part of the court judgment against the former president.”
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse’s (Outa’s) chief executive, Wayne Duvenage, said Mbalula’s remarks showed the true nature of the party he was part of leading.
Duvenage said politicians tend to forget what they say was always on record and might come back to haunt them if it was not authentically in line with what was best for the country and the people.
“There is no argument now, he cannot defend himself when he tries to get out of the situation of how they handled the Jacob Zuma Nkandla issue. The true colours are now starting to come forth and it damages his credibility for a long time,” he said
“This also makes people less interested in what he or his organisation has to say. He has done a lot of damage to the party as a result of his comments.”
Duvenage said parliament needed to ensure Mbalula appeared before the ethics committee and expose what happened in the Nkandla saga. “He has some answering to do; I think he is going to find it difficult to spin doctor his way out of this.”
‘It would not be necessary for parliament to call Mbalula to further explain himself on who exactly lied’