The African National Congress placed its former spokesperson Carl Niehaus on leave after realising he had ”withheld” information about his financial dealings, spokesperson Lindiwe Zulu said on Tuesday.
”There are quite a number of things that Carl himself did not tell the ANC when he came about to say I have a problem.
”Carl did declare some parts but he did not declare everything. He withheld information from the ANC.
”The ANC took him on the basis that he declared what had happened and now as the things are coming out and tumbling out the ANC itself is realising there was more to it than what he had given us,” Zulu said at the party headquarters in Johannesburg.
Earlier in the day, the party said its national working committee (NWC) decided to place Niehaus on a ”leave of absence”.
The ANC was still to decide whether or not Niehaus would be paid during this time, Zulu said.
The Mail & Guardian on Friday revealed fraudulent financial dealings by Niehaus and the ANC cadre offered to resign from his position following the report.
”Something like this becoming public … obviously must have consequences for me and … I accept that the ANC will decide about my future,” Niehaus told SAfm.
Also on Friday, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe told reporters the party had accepted Niehaus’s resignation, and would ”redeploy him in another role”.
However, after further revelations of Niehaus’s dealings, the NWC opted to place him on leave.
Details on what his ”leave of absence” would entail had not yet been hammered out.
”The details as to what’s going to happen with regards to the leave is going to be discussed with Comrade Carl but also with human resources because we haven’t given a time frame for his leave, but one thing is for sure he’s not a spokesperson for the ANC at the moment, he’s not working with the media unit at the moment, he’s actually not coming to the office at all,” Zulu said.
”… as to the finer details as to what this entails, these details have to be worked out because this was a decision of the NWC and therefore the relevant structures within the ANC will have to deal with the finer details of it.”
‘Some damage’ to the party
Zulu said the party was still assisting Niehaus from a ”humanitarian point of view”, adding that Niehaus was ”devastated” by the entire matter.
”He is devastated, he’s gone through a very difficult time … we’ve been trying to assist him from a humanitarian point of view because we believe that the fact that he’s accepted he’s made a mistake, the fact that he’s admitted to these things that have happened, for us is a positive start,” she said.
Zulu also conceded that the Niehaus matter had done ”some damage” to the party but added what was important was the way it moved forward.
”We can’t deny the fact that it has had some damage but the bottom line is it’s about what we do about it once we know about it and we know that most of the people that are going to be voting for the ANC know that we are committed to a clean government,” she said.
”We are committed to making sure that such things that have happened with Comrade Carl do not happen … that’s the bottom line for us, what do we do about it and I think the NWC has taken action by discussing it and taking very concrete decisions around what to do about it.”
Owning up
In Friday’s M&G report Niehaus was confronted with allegations that he owed hundreds of thousands of rands to politicians and influential businessmen, and committed fraud while working for the Gauteng government. A tearful Niehaus admitted to the paper that he:
- Forged signatures while he was chief executive of the Gauteng Economic Development Agency (Geda) before resigning in December 2005;
- Borrowed money over a six-year period from some of the brightest stars of the ANC and business galaxy, much of which he has not paid back;
- Asked to be connected to Brett Kebble because he was ”desperate for financial help”;
- Had to leave a top job at Deloitte & Touche in 2003 after his financial woes became embarrassing;
- Had to repay R24 000 to Director General in the Presidency Frank Chikane when he left his job there under a cloud in 2004.