Tshwarelo Hunter Mogakane
Pretoria - The ANC’s disciplinary hearing against suspended Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association spokesperson Carl Niehaus had to be postponed yesterday following technical issues involving national executive committee (NEC) member Fikile Mbalula’s virtual platform.
In what Niehaus termed a kangaroo court, the outspoken supporter of former president Jacob Zuma was not surprised that the national disciplinary committee hearing did not go ahead as planned.
“The kangaroo disciplinary hearing was just now discontinued because of technical chaos on the Zoom platform. The presenter and the witness (Fikile Mbalula) could not hear each other. It was just an unmitigated mess.
“However, despite this shambles of a persecution, and all the technical and managerial chaos, the committee insisted on continuing with the so-called disciplinary action against me,” Niehaus wrote, following the postponement of the hearing to November 26.
Niehaus is facing disciplinary charges in relation to several party rules that he is alleged to have contravened.
The legal wrangles between Niehaus and the ANC date back to his public criticism of the Constitutional Court for sending Zuma to prison without trial.
He was expelled from the party, but his lawyers appealed the matter.
Niehaus himself has previously pressed charges against the leadership of the ANC for their failure to pay staff salaries.
He says he is determined that his presence at the ANC’s 55th national elective conference will bring change to the top structure of the governing party.
Niehaus, however, believes that the plan was for the hearing to be held before the sitting of the ANC elective conference.
“Evidently the sole intention of this persecution is to try to prevent me from being able to be a delegate at the national conference.
“I will not allow them to get away with this trumped-up farce,” he said.
He said it was the “umpteenth time” that he was appearing before the committee.
“Most of the time the hearings disintegrate into farce, and are postponed because witnesses do not come, and charges are not properly prepared.
“Anyhow, how can you have proper charges when you try to charge someone for having stated the obvious, that the judiciary is captured, and that the Constitutional Court’s 15 months sentence of President Zuma was unjust and illegal?” he said.
“It is just a farce. A persecution and kangaroo court. Today the committee (brought) of all people as their ‘star witness’ against me, Fikile Mbalula. It is pathetic, an outrage and provocation. But I will remain calm and deal with them decisively,” Niehaus said.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe was unavailable for comment.
Pretoria News