Carl Niehaus calls Mantashe a ‘fat cat minister’ in ‘arrogant and entitled’ ANC

On Friday afternoon, former ANC employee Carl Niehaus, the spokesperson of the now defunct Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association (MKMVA), made known his thoughts about the ANC’s latest letter to its staff apologising for not paying their salaries for a third month in a row.

Niehaus took aim at ANC general manager Febé Potgieter for how she had phrased the letter this week, accusing her of cutting and pasting the same phrases that were contained in previous such letters, such as that “the hardships caused are regretted”. He described this as a cold and detached comment, far removed from the hardships families were now facing due to not being paid.

He was equally dismissive of the ANC blaming Covid-19-induced economic difficulties for its financial problems.

Niehaus went on to agree with the notion that the ANC’s arrogance was now “on steroids” after the party asked its unpaid staff to continue to work for the organisation in the lead-up and through the upcoming elections despite party head of elections having inadvertently revealed that the ANC would be spending in the region of R50 million on its local government elections campaign.

The ANC later tried to backtrack on this revelation, describing The Citizen’s report quoting Mbalula as “sensational” and “malicious”.

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ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe had also earlier said in a prior press conference that the party was building a separate budget for campaign purposes, which would be kept separate from “payroll”.

Niehaus was scornful of Potgieter for promoting “kindness” on her personal profile while allegedly being anything but.

He said it was clear the ANC seemed to have no idea when its “long-suffering staff” would be paid, even though expectations remained that they should simply keep working.

He called ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe a “fat cat minister” who hadn’t been made to wait a day for his R2.4 million annual salary while still feeling free to tell ANC staff they should be willing to work “for the people”, not for salaries.

Niehaus said these latest developments were a demonstration of why the current ANC leadership needed to be replaced so that the ANC could return to being a “caring and revolutionary organisation”, “for whom we were prepared to sacrifice our lives”.

Niehaus was summarily dismissed from the ANC’s employ this month after declaring his intention to lay criminal charges against the party’s top officials for allegedly not paying staff taxes and unemployment fund contributions, among other things. He later did lay those charges at a police station in Johannesburg.