‘Have your head checked’ if you think Mbalula’s fire pool comments is admission of lies

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula seems to have dug a deeper hole for himself in an attempt to explain his fire pool comments.

Addressing members of the ANC at the Mjindi Town Hall in Barberton on Sunday, Mbalula admitted that members of the ruling party had lied about the fire pool at then-president Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead.

ALSO READ: Mbalula’s admission ANC lied about Zuma’s Nkandla fire pool ‘an insult to constitution’

This was seemingly Mbalula’s attempt to expose Zuma as an ungrateful person for the protection he received from the ruling party.

“In defence of our president, we opened an ad-hoc committee in parliament and said a swimming pool is a fire pool. It’s difficult to explain lies but we said that a swimming pool was a fire pool. People have lost their careers because of that thing,” said Mbalula.

What Mbalula meant to say

Following a deluge of criticism for his comments, a statement shared on his social media page has made an attempt to explain what Mbalula said and what he “meant in context”.

The statement explains that the establishment of the parliamentary ad hoc committee on Nkandla was meant to protect Zuma from being “unfairly overrun by the malevolent opposition”.

ALSO READ: #TBT: Nathi Nhleko insists ‘firepool’, cattle kraal and chicken coop are security features

This despite that findings against Zuma were made by then-public protector Thuli Madonsela, who said Zuma should repay some of the money spent on the “security measures” done in Nkandla.

“What is important to expose here is that by affording the president due process of law, which was his right under our constitution, the ANC was protecting its president,” reads the statement.

Mbalula meant to say the ruling party defended Zuma until the Constitutional Court clarified in its ruling that “enormous state resources were misappropriated to achieve the renovations in Nkandla”.

“Once the apex court pronounced both its findings and its ruling on the matter, not a squeak came out of the ANC in defence of its president.

ALSO READ: WATCH: ‘ANC defended Zuma for Nkandla, but he can’t stand Ramaphosa’ – Mbalula

“The matter was resolved, and the then president had to cough up the misappropriated funds.”

According to the statement, only members of opposition parties and sworn enemies of the ANC would be justified in interpreting Mbalula’s comments as an admission of lies, however, anyone else “must have his/her head checked”.

“The remarks must also be understood as political rally rhetoric and polemics.”

In response to Zuma’s announcement that he would not be campaigning for “Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC”, Mbalula emphasised the importance of supporting Ramaphosa “in ensuring that he too is not overrun by ANC enemies who are engaged in baseless, untested, or unproven claims”.

However, should the courts find against Ramaphosa in the Phala Phala debacle, the ANC would “act fearlessly”.

ALSO READ: WATCH: ‘ANC not threatened by Zuma’s endorsement of MK, NEC will deal with it’ – Mbalula

In response, South Africans who have read the statement have slammed Mbalula for “taking them for a ride”.