Why ANC wants Phiyega’s head

Fuming Mantashe says top cop misled the party during briefing

Officials who have gone public with inaccurate information must be censured

NATIONAL police commissioner General Riah Phiyega told top ANC leaders in January that the swimming pool at President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead was not a recreational facility, but a “fire pool”.

But on Tuesday, a day before public protector Thuli Madonsela released her report on Nkandla, ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu visited Nkandla — where he discovered that the party had been lied to and that the pool was indeed intended for recreation.

Embarrassed ANC bosses now want Phiyega’s head, following findings by Madonsela that a swimming pool was built at massive cost to the state.

Madonsela has asked that Zuma repay a portion of the money spent on the pool, a cattle kraal, chicken run, amphitheatre and a visitors’ centre.

A seething Gwede Mantashe, ANC secretary-general, told journalists on Thursday that action ought be taken against Phiyega and officials who spun the lie about the Nkandla pool.

“Officials who have gone public with inaccurate information must be censured, like the information and description of the swimming pool as the fire pool, and the details given to explain this matter constitute a misrepresentation of facts,” he said.

“The minister of police is expected to take appropriate action in this regard.”

The ANC’s singling out of Phiyega has to do with a briefing she gave to a meeting of the party’s national executive committee, in which she assured them that the pool at Zuma’s homestead was not for swimming. An NEC member said Phiyega was among top government officials called in to brief the ANC about Nkandla.

“What is worse is that we called them in as the experts to come brief us in a closed meeting. She told us that the pool was not for swimming . . . that it was a fire pool.

“She even said it was linked to the fire-fighting equipment and that it was 2m deep, all without any steps. She misled us,” said the NEC leader.

The ANC sent its own team to Nkandla on Tuesday and was giv- en a tour of the property by Zuma’s architect, Minenhle Makhanya.

It is understood that when Makhanya was asked about the pool, he still maintained that it was for fire- fighting purposes.

“Makhanya still tried to lie to us about the pool, but it was clear that was a swimming pool. He could not answer as to where the [fire-fighting] pipes that they said were connected to it were,” said an insider.

But insiders in Phiyega’s office said she was not the one who had come up with the fire-pool story.

“When we did the dimensions based on the risk [of a fire], we said you need 60 000 litres of water. We left it to public works and the architect to decide how to acquire those 60 000 litres. They decided on the pool,” said one insider.

Lieutenant-General Solomon Makgale, Phiyega’s spokesman, referred all queries about the Nkandla report to government spokeswoman Phumla Williams.

Williams said the government would not comment on the ANC’s remarks, but said it stood by the statement given by security cluster ministers on Wednesday in which they still referred to it as a “fire pool”.

“We are studying the report and we are only going to be commenting once we have done that,” she said.

In her report, Madonsela explains how she learnt of the “fire pool” story.

“It transpired from the investigation that what was initially supposed to be a fire pool [water reservoir] was converted into a swimming pool.

“[Public Works Department project manager Jean] Rindel explained that it was decided . . . to make it aesthetically pleasant as well as building it in the form of a swimming pool.” Comment on this: write to tellus@sundaytimes.co.za or SMS us at 33971 www.timeslive.co.za