Brian? Never heard of him

THE controversy over former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe’s deployment as an ANC MP has taken a new turn, with his supposed party branch in North West saying it has never heard of him.

Molefe is set to be sworn in as an MP on Wednesday, just in time to be in the house when Pravin Gordhan, whom he is widely expected to replace as finance minister, delivers the budget speech.

Amid a war of words between the North West ANC and its former deputy chairman, China Dodovu, over Molefe’s appointment, the Hartbeespoort ANC branch to which Molefe is supposed to belong told the Sunday Times that he had never been to its meetings.

“We don’t know him,” said Christina Mululu, Madibeng municipality’s Ward 29 ANC branch secretary. “He has never come for a meeting . . . we did not nominate him for parliament.”

Mululu’s comments are the latest in a series of bizarre developments surrounding Molefe’s march to a parliamentary seat.

The Sunday Times has established that a day after it reported last month that Molefe was destined for parliament the ANC instructed a North West MP to vacate his seat.

Abram Mudau, who joined parliament as a backbencher in April 2014, resigned on January 30, making it possible for the party in the province to nominate Molefe as a new MP.

Mudau denied this week that he had been pushed out. He said he stepped down voluntarily as he was still struggling with injuries he suffered in a 2013 brawl in Tlokwe. “I left because I broke my arm and leg . . . it was in Tlokwe when they were fighting,” he said.

Asked why he accepted the position

in 2014 and stayed on as an MP until early this year if it was hard to cope with the injuries, he said: “I thought I was fine, but I was not fine.”

Mudau said he now spent his time on his land looking after his cattle. He insisted that he was not aware that Molefe was earmarked to replace him when he resigned.

According to ANC insiders in the province, Mudau was instructed to sign a resignation letter dated January 30.

“He said he tried to resist, but they [provincial leaders] forced him,” said an insider, who knows Mudau well.

“There are many disabled people in parliament, some of them are using wheelchairs,” said the source.

But ANC North West secretary Dakota Legoete said Mudau resigned of his own will and because of ill-health.

“He said he did not want to continue being absent [from parliament] which is costing taxpayers . . . we thought it was a fair reason,” he said.

Legoete also defended Molefe’s nomination after claims that the former Eskom boss was not a North West resident.

“For the record, comrade Brian is an ANC member in good standing of Ward 29 in Hartbeespoort Dam in Madibeng local municipality,” said Legoete. Molefe owns properties in Pretoria, Midrand, Limpopo and Hartbeespoort.

Legoete was responding to Dodovu, a former ANC leader who went on social media to allege that Molefe was nominated irregularly by the province as he was not from there.

Speculation is rife in the ANC that Molefe’s deployment to parliament is intended to pave the way for him to become a minister in President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet.

Insiders believe that Zuma would soon replace Gordhan with Molefe or rein in Gordhan’s control of the National Treasury by making Molefe his deputy.

News of Molefe’s redeployment coincided with a statement by the ANC Youth League’s national executive committee on Friday calling on Zuma to sack the finance minister.

Yesterday, Gordhan declined to comment on speculation that Molefe was going to parliament to replace him.

He said: “We are here to work, and those reports do not move me. Friday was the first anniversary of the 27 questions sent to me by the Hawks as I was busy preparing the budget last year.

“We are here to work and serve. The top tier of the National Treasury does not need to be here. They are here because they want to serve. They could go anywhere and earn three times what they earn here because they are highly qualified.

“They choose to be here because they want to serve,” said Gordhan.

Molefe joins parliament as it starts deliberating on former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s state capture report, implicating him in activities related to the Gupta family. — Additional Reporting by Babalo Ndenze and Sabelo Skiti

❛ We are here to work, and those reports do not move me