Mbalula critcises Ekurhuleni mayor for ‘Gupta curry’ comment

Fikile Mbalula criticised Mzwandile Masina this week after the Ekurhuleni mayor claimed “he did not have curry with the Guptas like others” during an interview on Newzroom Afrika’s FrankTalk show with JJ Tabane.

Mbalula was replying to a tweet, where a user claimed Masina was lying during the interview.

We cant see khutso oreng?

— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) March 3, 2020

“We can’t see Khutso, what are you saying?” Mbalula replied.

The user further explained to Mbalula about Masina’s curry comment, prompting a vulgar response from the Minister of Transport.

Wanyela! he want to rise in leadership at the expense of others.

— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) March 3, 2020

“W**yela! He want [sic] to rise in leadership at the expense of others,” Mbalula said.

Masina was answering Tabane’s question about his speech during the uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association’s Boksburg’s elective conference in 2017.

He had asked then president Jacob Zuma to “let the Guptas give the ANC the space to conduct the revolution”.

The mayor said he addressed Zuma during his speech as it was becoming difficult to politically defend the then president because of his dealings with the Guptas.

He added that he didn’t know the Guptas personally, further explaining the reason why he wouldn’t go to the Zondo commission and claim he had “curry with them like others”.

“I don’t know his [Zuma’s] business with the Guptas personally, and I am not involved. I have never met the Guptas anywhere and I will never go to the Zondo commission saying when they called me I ate curry.

“I never ate any curry like others who ate curry,” Masina told Tabane.

Masina further commented on the Zondo commission into state capture, saying that it was a waste of time, money and other resources.

“I don’t believe the commission is relevant and this is my personal view. I don’t think it [the commission] will help us to solve the complexities of what would have happened.

“How do you prosecute criminals? That commission is not going to help us. We are actually wasting money,” he said.

He criticised former director-general of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) Themba Maseko about his involvement.

“You have people who are lying [during the commission] like Themba. For Themba Maseko to have taken money or attempted to take the money to the Guptas is his business and he must answer for it [during the commssion].

The mayor also spoke about the technology university that President Cyril Ramaphosa approved during the state of the nation address (Sona) last month.

Masina had been championing the building of a higher learning institution in the Ekurhuleni metropolitan area since assuming his position in 2016.

READ: Envisaged Ekurhuleni science university to equip students to develop economy – ANC

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