AXED ANC employee Carl Niehaus and several ANC employees have opened a criminal case at Johannesburg Central Police Station against the party and its senior leaders.
This comes after the ANC failed to pay salaries and pension benefits for almost three months.
Niehaus was accompanied by McDonald Mathabe, their attorney Rudolph Baloyi from Eric Mabuza Attorneys and Thabo Msibi from Democracy in Action organisation.
“We have opened a case against ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa, Deputy President David Mabuza, deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, Gwede Mantashe, Paul Mashatile and the ANC as an organisation,” Niehaus told the media outside the police station.
Niehaus was given marching orders by the ANC last Thursday for alleged misconduct ad ill-discipline.
He was given a few hours to motivate why he should not be fired.
On Wednesday night, party spokesperson Pule Mabe said Niehaus will have to provide evidence of the work he did for the party – at least since party secretary-general Ace Magashule’s suspension.
Mabe was addressing journalists at the ANC’s headquarters, Luthuli House.
“If he works in the SG’s office, no problem. He then must tell the police what he did in the past 60 days or in the past 24 hours of the ANC before the letter of dismissal was written to him.
“If he works for the ANC and he works in the secretary-general’s office, he must say what he does on a daily basis,” said Mabe. “Does attending court and going all over breaking Covid-19 regulations associate with work in the SG’s office? We see Carl Niehaus on television, we don’t see him here at Luthuli House,” said Mabe.
Mabe said people who worked at Magashule’s office were allocated other responsibilities in the ANC after he was suspended and remained on the party’s payroll.
The ANC suspended Magashule in May as a result of its “step-aside” resolution which says all senior members and leaders who are criminally charged should stand aside.
“You can’t abscond from work and use the fact that you work in the secretary-general’s office [as an excuse]. It doesn’t work like that,” he said. “The ANC doesn’t pay people because it knows them by their first names. ANC pays people because they are working and they are doing something,” said Mabe.
“What is strange is that some of these comrades who are today opening cases against the ANC did not apply for their jobs, they were headhunted, brought in to deal with whatever situation that they might have been facing at the time. They never applied or submitted a certificate for a job.”
Last week, Mabe launched a scathing attack on Niehaus, saying he has a desperate lust for publicity, and that his latest withdrawal of the fraudulent statement does not augur well with his self-claimed credentials as a decorated freedom fighter.
“We find the behaviour of Carl who appears more on public and social media platforms to be divisive, opportunistic and devoid of revolutionary discipline,” said Mabe.
“Coincidentally, Niehaus has elected to apply the tactics of one desperate opposition party lacking a clear programme for the upcoming local government elections and pinning their hopes on a liquidated ANC. Carl had initially and consciously chosen to follow the DA’s example and leadership in laying charges against an organisation he claims to be his own.”
Earlier last week, the DA announced plans to press criminal charges against the ANC’s top-six leadership over the governing party’s alleged failure to pay Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) contributions to the state.
- Inside Politics
