Pigs eat their own at the trough

Oh dear. How else, though, to express our sadness at the departure from the ruling ANC of the man who popularised one of the most absurd cover-ups for wasteful spending yet seen in this country?

Nathi Nhleko it was, as police minister, who first informed the country that the multimillion-rand pool constructed at Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead was, in fact, a fire-fighting device… a “firepool”.

The hapless Nhleko it was who had to take the heat from what ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula admitted finally only recently was “a lie” fabricated to explain the swimming pool.

In his angry resignation letter this week, Nhleko was clearly unhappy about being thrown under the bus for what was a collective decision and said he resigned because the ANC’s “current values and principles are not aligned to mine”.

ALSO READ: Nathi Nhleko leaves ANC, slams Mbalula’s ‘bankrupt thinking’

Before we point out that every revolution eats its own, comrade, we were wondering what values and principles you were talking about, because we haven’t seen these in evidence in many ANC leaders at all.

Looking on from the sidelines, we don’t think this particular spat has much bearing on anything.

In an organisation like the ANC, you’re bound to have regular falling out fights between those at the trough.