ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula has dismissed the perjury charges brought against higher education minister Dr Nobuhle Nkabane by the Democratic Alliance as “performative politics”.
On Monday Mbalula briefed the media in Johannesburg and came out strongly in the minister’s defense arguing she never lied to parliament as alleged by the former opposition party and now key player in the Government of National Unity.
Mbalula said Nkabane provided parliament with information that contained errors, a mistake he said she has since owned up to.
“We reject, in the strongest terms, the Democratic Alliance’s opportunistic laying of criminal charges against the Minister. The DA’s conduct is not grounded in legal principle, but in performative politics. (While gang violence and systemic inequality devastate communities in the Western Cape, the DA will rather misdirect police resources toward a political vendetta,” said Mbalula of the case brought by the DA.
Mbalula commended Nkabane saying she listened when discontent was aired regarding the now reversed appointments of board members of SETAs.
“In order to preserve the integrity of the process, in terms of the CETAs, the Minister has undertaken to withdraw the entire list of proposed SETA board chairpersons, regardless of merit, in order to preserve the integrity of the process and rebuild confidence in the skills development sector. The Minister has decided to restart the process afresh, in full compliance with legal provisions(14:42) and without the influence of the prior panel, invite broader sectoral participation, including business, labour and student organisations, in the spirit of cooperative governance, a process we fully support as the African National Congress,” said Mbalula.
Meanwhile Parliament has received letters from individuals denying their involvement in the selection panel of SETAs. Advocate Terry Mudau was the first to distance himself from the process forcing Nkabane to apologise for listing him as having chaired the panel attributing her actions to a misunderstanding.
Nkabane’s own Chief of Staff Nelisiwe Semane has also distanced herself from the selection process after being named as among those who oversaw it.
The higher education department’s deputy director general has also denied any involvement in the process, raising more questions about the minister’s explanations.
Mbalula said until proven otherwise, the ANC believes Nkabane in all her assertions.
“You can go and open a case against somebody in a court and all of that. But where is this charge that the minister has not acted in a manner that seeks to do things right, in a way? She has appeared before that committee and they’ve taken it to ethics now, right? They’ve taken it to ethics. Let these things that she told the lies be tested.Ministers, that’s where they are subjected to. But we also outline what are the issues in terms of the education sector. What are the things that are actually facing us that need to be addressed,” said Mbalula.