Fired ANC employee Carl Niehaus and some aggrieved ANC employees have registered a criminal case against the party and its senior leaders.
FIRED ANC employee Carl Niehaus and some aggrieved ANC employees have registered a criminal case at Johannesburg Central police station against the party and its senior leaders.
This is after the ruling party failed to pay salaries and UIF for almost three months to date.
Niehaus was fired by the ANC last Thursday for alleged misconduct.
He sent out a release alerting the media that, together with other employees, he intended to open a criminal case.
Niehaus, who says he was only given a few hours to motivate why he should not be fired, said he would officially submit an appeal against his dismissal.
The party gave Niehaus seven days to appeal, then ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe said they would only engage Niehaus through his legal representative.
“We have opened a case against ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa, deputy president David Mabuza, deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, Gwede Mantashe, Paul Mashatile and the ANC as an organisation,” Niehaus said on Wednesday.
He said that they had planned to lay charges of theft, corruption and various statutory charges last Thursday.
“We then decided to hold back on those charges on the basis of discussions that we had with the ANC staff association, which indicated to us that they had a meeting on Thursday afternoon with the NOBs, that meeting has not transpired.
“Yesterday evening we met with a number of staff who intended to be part of this action of laying criminal charges and we decided because of the very severe intimidation that I myself had been subjected to on Thursday, where I was summarily dismissed as an employee of the ANC, that we will not subject the other staff members to exposure at this stage. It is our duty to protect their identity and their jobs.
“It is clear to us that there was an intention from the management of our employer to use our actions against me as an intimidation against other staff members,” Niehaus.
Niehaus was accompanied by McDonald Mathabe, their attorney Rudolph Baloyi from Eric Mabuza Attorneys and Thabo Msibi from Democracy in Action organisation.
Mathabe raised issues of tough conditions that employees had been subjected to due to the non-payment of salaries.
“Our action to come and lay these criminal cases did not come easy, it follows after many months of having raised our concerns with senior management of the ANC, our admonitions to them fell on deaf ears.
“It was not possible to remain silent any longer about the serious financial maladministration that led to the crimes that we have reported today. It is wrong to accuse us of trying to destroy the ANC,” said Mathabe.
Both Mathabe and Niehaus said it was a labour issue not a political one.
– Political Bureau
