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| Jackson Mthembu |
ANC chief whip, Jackson Mthembu says that the party’s national executive committee (NEC) should step down because it has failed its members – and is acting worse than the apartheid government.
This is according to a report by the City Press, who Mthembu told he was very disappointed with the party’s handling of the ongoing battle against finance minister Pravin Gordhan.
Two weeks ago, head of the national prosecuting authority (NPA) Shaun Abrahams brought charges of fraud against Gordhan, over his approval of early retirement for former SARS deputy commissioner, Ivan Pillay.
Despite giving an indication the charges could be reviewed, the City Press cited two unnamed sources inside NPA that said that the Hawks have been assured that the prosecution will go ahead no matter what.
Mthembu said he was “deeply hurt” seeing the ANC government using instruments of state to pursue its own minister.
“When you see these things being done by a democratic state, your heart jumps. We are not only equal to the apartheid state, we are worse – because they never treated their ministers like this,” he told the paper.
Mtehmbu has raised the call for the ANC NEC to resign at meetings following the poor results in the 2016 municipal elections. He said he would not put his name forward for any position in the ANC at the 2017 election conference.
Other sources in the NEC told the City Press that Mthembu is running a “parallel caucus” in Parliament to undermine president Jacob Zuma and to create confusion every time the NEC makes a decision – “but we are still strong,” they said.
You can read the full, detailed story in the City Press for 23 October 2016
