Cape Town — Former Minister of Police, Nathi Nhleko, is the latest African National Congress (ANC) member to leave the party, saying it has lost it’s political direction.
Nhleko sent a seven-page letter to president Cyril Ramaphosa and ANC secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, expressing his dissatisfaction over Mbalula’s assertation that he (Nhleko) was sweating in Parliament over calling the Nkandla swimming pool, “fire pool”, in an attempt to cover for former president, Jacob Zuma, SABC News reported.
In 2015, Nhleko filed a report where he found the culvert, chicken run, cattle kraal and swimming pool, among others, were part of security upgrades to Zuma’s home. Nhleko did not mince his words about Mbalula, calling him the worst ANC secretary-general in the party’s 112-year history.
Former Police Minister Nathi Nhleko has resigned from the ANC
“I resign from this African National Congress as its current values and principles are not aligned to mine” Nhleko pic.twitter.com/K5rbA6aAAY
— News Live SA (@newslivesa) March 4, 2024
According to IOL, Nhleko said he was leaving a party he has been with since the 1970s, when he joined at a young age. In his letter, he refers to the comments made by Mbalula towards Jacob Zuma and his uMkhonto weSizwe party (MK).
“In the recent attack mounted against my person, by a Mr Fikile Mbalula, a Secretary-General of the ANC; about what he called ‘my sweating’ , ‘the firepool narrative’ and what he called were ‘lies to protect the former president. He closed his attack by stating that people lost their careers because of this thing’,” Nhleko said in detail.
Nhleko said what has made him to leave the ANC was that the party has changed from what it was in terms of policy direction. It remains to be seen whether he was joining another party or not.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
