‘They can do whatever they want’: Niehaus says he won’t collect his belongings at Luthuli House

Controversial ANC staffer Carl Niehaus says he will not comply with the party’s order for him to collect his personal belongings at Luthuli House on Friday morning following his dismissal as an employee of the party.

In a letter addressed to Niehaus on Thursday, ANC general manager Febe Potgieter gave him between 10am and 11am on Friday to collect all his belongings from ANC security at the party’s headquarters in Johannesburg.

ALSO READ: ANC dismisses Carl Niehaus with immediate effect

But Niehaus told The Citizen he would not comply with the instruction because he intends to appeal his “unfair and illegal” dismissal. He accused the ANC’s management of attempting to intimate and embarrass him by issuing the order.

“I’m not going to play their game. They want me to go there and be humiliated taking staff out of my office. I’m going to appeal [and] I will not go there now. They can do whatever they what to do with whatever stuff is in my office,” he said.

Relationship irretrievably broken down

The spokesperson of the now-disbanded Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) was given the boot from the ANC after he issued a statement – which he later withdrew in a letter – in which he said ANC employees would lay criminal charges against the party’s national office bearers on Thursday over the non-payment of salaries.

The ANC dismissed Niehaus after giving him two and a half hours to give reasons why he should not be summarily dismissed and his employment terminated.

Niehaus said he had made the statement in his personal capacity, but the ANC was not convinced by him saying he had “not provided any cogent reasons for the ANC to arrive at any conclusion other than that the employment relationship between you and the organisation has completely and irretrievably broken down”.

Niehaus told The Citizen the process followed to dismiss him was “grossly unfair”.

“I will definitely appeal. There has been no hearing and no process. It’s a summary dismissal which is illegal,” he said.

Niehaus believes the ANC is trying to intimidate him against speaking out about his claims of mismanagement and fraud involving its finances.

He said he had evidence that the ANC has been deducting pay-as-you-earn tax, Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), and provident funds from its employees without paying it over to the relevant authorities.

“The management of the ANC has mismanaged the finances of the ANC. The issue of deducting monies from our payslips for pay-as-you-earn tax, for the provident fund and all those, and not paying it over to the legal institutions, is a criminal act.

“I had to act as a whistleblower for this both as a citizen of the country and a member of the ANC who cares about the future of the ANC, because of the current leadership and management of the ANC – through their manner of management and their incompetence – is destroying the ANC.”

Niehaus still going ahead with pressing charges

Niehaus said he would go ahead with his threat to lay a criminal complaint against the party’s top-six leaders at the Johannesburg Central Police Station. He said an announcement would be made later on Friday.

“I’ve got my payslips and I know how much money has been deducted [and] how much money has not been paid over. I have all the evidence and that evidence will be contained in the statement of complaint that will be laid with the police,” he said.

“I reiterate that myself and a number of other members of the ANC staff will proceed to lay these challenges.”

WATCH: Carl Niehaus arrested while live on television