The ANC may have won just over 57% of the national vote, but all is not well within the party’s senior ranks.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is currently involved in a juggling act of his own, trying to appease the public’s desire for accountability and the pro-Zuma faction at the same time, but he’s not being helped by senior party members.

Nowhere is that more apparent than on Twitter, where ANC head of elections Fikile Mbalula and Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom have been involved in a tussle with Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) spokesperson Carl Niehaus.

It started yesterday when Niehaus called out Mbalula for blocking him:

According to IOL, “this was after Mbalula said on Twitter the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) was sent by Magashule after they lashed out at him for his stance towards the secretary-general”.

There’s no doubting that Mbalula is a twat, who cosied up to Zuma whilst he was in charge and is now singing to a completely different tune with Ramaphosa at the helm, but Niehaus has some serious skeletons in his closet.

Mr Fearfokkol was quick to hit back:

Classy.

Don’t these guys have a WhatsApp group where they can bicker like children? Remember that these are big decision makers in our national policy…

The finishing move came from Minister of Tourism, Hanekom, with a real zinger:

At this point, you’re excused for thinking that there is no way that can be true. I mean, how could somebody like that remain within the party’s structures, right?

Wait for it:

Niehaus, formerly an ANC national spokesperson, was exposed two years ago as having “killed off” his mother in an elaborate hoax to wriggle out of paying a R4.3 million debt.

This actually happened. I don’t know what is worse, the fact that it happened, or that we’re so beset by stories of criminality within the ANC that things like this can sometimes fly under the radar.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the Niehaus scandal with a TimesLIVE article from 2017:

Niehaus [below] owes R4.3-million for rental of two luxury apartments in Sandton —   as well as damage to expensive furnishings and artwork —  unpaid concierge charges and interest.

In an audacious bid to avoid legal action, he claimed his mother had died and he would soon receive a generous inheritance, 90% of which would allow him to settle the debt.

His mother, Magrietha Niehaus, 88, is in fact alive and living in a home for the elderly in Johannesburg, other Niehaus family members said.

Niehaus made up reams of what appears to be fraudulent correspondence and paperwork to back up his claim, including a series of e-mails between him and a fictitious “director” at Sanlam.

What kind of a human lies about his own mother’s death? What kind of a party lets such a man remain within its ranks?

Oh, by the way, he was caught out in a similar scam in 2011 involving his father. He was tangled up in debt, and attempted to borrow money that he said was to cover funeral expenses for his father.

Yes, his father was still alive.

Like sands through the hourglass, these are the politicians of the ruling party.

[sources:iol&timeslive]