Dear Mr President, it is time to fire Minister Nkabane with immediate effect
The past weeks have revealed a series of lies to Parliament by Minister Nobuhle Nkabane.
Dear Mr. President,
The past weeks have revealed a series of lies to Parliament by Minister Nobuhle Nkabane.
She has used a strategy of lying to Parliament to try and cover up her tracks, after she made a brazen ANC cadre deployment appointment to the boards of the Sectoral Education and Training Authorities. South Africans were rightfully outraged about this.
Once exposed, and once public pressure mounted, Minister Nkabane made an effective admission to her infringements by withdrawing the appointments.
Her ANC cadre deployment had been exposed, roundly criticised, and she had to admit defeat.
What followed was a series of lies. Her first lie to Parliament, to underplay her involvement, was that an 'independent panel' had chosen the successful ANC cadres, deflecting attention from her.
But the vague and evasive explanation demanded details, names and identities. Minister Nkabane was put on notice to come clean to Parliament and declare to the Portfolio Committee about who sat on this 'independent panel', and in her reply, Minister Nkabane once again lied. For a second time, she lied to Parliament.
Minister Nkabane abused the name of a senior legal expert, Advocate Terry Motau, claiming that he chaired her 'independent panel.' Adv. Motau exposed that Minister Nkabane was not telling the truth, and since then, Nkabane has publicly declared that she was wrong about Motau.
The other panel members were absolutely not 'independent' either - some are on the payroll of her Department, and two are even political appointments, including a Chief of Staff, in the office of the ANC Minister.
And worse, Minister Nkabane continues to hide the name of one member of the panel - what she has to hide with this one name is now of the highest suspicion.
Mr. President, you have a lying Minister in your Cabinet, who has been caught red-handed.
It is time for you to Fire Minister Nobuhle Nkabane with immediate effect, and to replace her with a Minister committed to making Higher Education work, not committed to making work for ANC insiders.
Yours in public service,
Karabo Khakhau, MP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Citizen
37 minutes ago
- The Citizen
Cyril must seize opportunity
Iran's vulnerabilities have been exposed and its confidence has been shaken. The Israel-Iran war lasted only 12 days but its consequences will reshape global politics for years. One positive is that the battering taken by South Africa's ally, Iran, could paradoxically greatly benefit this country, if President Cyril Ramaphosa had the wit and courage to seize the opportunity. SA-Iran ties The greatest impediment to a good relationship with the United States has been SA's support of Iran. It is hardly surprising, then, that SA's increasing alignment with Iran's 'axis of resistance' and its self-appointed role as a spokesperson for the global south in siding with Russia and China against Western democracies, has caused the US steadily growing concern over the past dozen or so years. This came to a head in February under the combative presidency of Donald Trump, who issued a punishing executive order against SA. Despite these substantial economic costs caused by the order and Ramaphosa speaking fervently about the need to 'reset' ties with the US, the government seems paralysed. It boils down to the fact that foreign policy is not determined by pragmatism and national interest, but by ideology and party interest. The foundation of SA's post-1994 risky friendship with Iran stems from an anti-Western ideological outlook that the ANC has historically shared. This has been amplified by a powerful Islamist clique within the department of international relations and cooperation that is strong enough within ANC party structures to dictate a harder line on Middle East matters than many in the Cabinet would choose. ALSO READ: Iran voices 'serious doubts' over Israel commitment to ceasefire Iran's vulnerabilities have been exposed The drubbing that Iran took in the 12-day war changes everything. Iran's new precariousness as a functional state, its wavering status as a revolutionary beacon and its more circumscribed financial circumstances reduce Monday 10 30 June 2025 its usefulness to the ANC on all fronts. Whether its nuclear programme has been destroyed or only set back months, Iran undoubtedly will have reduced capacity for mischief-making in the Middle East, while preoccupied with internal reconstruction. Infrastructure has to be rebuilt, lost nuclear and military expertise replaced and weaponry stocks replenished, all while fretting whether the ayatollah's government might be toppled in a popular uprising. Iran's vulnerabilities have been exposed and its confidence has been shaken. Israel effortlessly thwarted its much-hyped missile barrages, while the US demonstrated decisively that it would not sit idle while Tehran lashed out. The loop of perpetual Middle East conflict has been broken, or at least dramatically reset. Iran's terror proxies are isolated, vulnerable and on the back foot. ALSO READ: Six Israelis detained for attacking soldiers in West Bank Israel's upper hand and mending ties For the first time in decades, the strategic initiative lies firmly with Israel. Militarily, the Jewish state has never been stronger but it is being comprehensively bested on the battlefield of international public opinion over the conflict in Gaza. With Iran down, for the moment, and Syria making noises, this is Israel's best window yet to resolve the Palestinian question; to trade restraint for recognition and to convert tactical dominance into a durable regional peace through a revitalised and expanded Abraham Accords. South Africa faces its own fork in the road. It can continue acting as a megaphone for radical Islam and a cheerleader for rogue states or it, too, can seize the moment. Re-establishing ties with Israel, mending its fractured relationship with Washington and offering itself as a credible, post-ideological broker in the Middle East would not only serve the national interest, it would rescue a South African foreign policy now adrift in ANC moral incoherence, under Ramaphosa's timorous captaincy. READ NEXT: Zelensky signs decree for Ukraine's withdrawal from anti-landmine treaty
TimesLIVE
an hour ago
- TimesLIVE
The thing around your neck: how do youth throw off the leash?
Pali Lehohla and Nomvula Mabuza of IDS compare young South Africans with their Kenyan counterparts as the East Africans confront a cannibalistic state By Pali Lehohla and Nomvula Mabuza engage in deliberative polemics of a country silenced in what historian Martin Legassick characterises as the dissolution-preservation dichotomy and uncover the classical apartheid management framework that has fossilised in our current and like cancer survives by devouring its host. When you get asked a million dollar question, what do you do? Obviously you answer. But suddenly the discourse uncovers more than you sought to answer. A relevant concerns Kenya and South Africa, which represent two settler colonial experiences, and an unfolding crisis of existence, one with deep apartheid structures, the other cutting not as deep. To try to answer, the immediate obvious is about the necessary intervention that government has put in place to avert cannibalism as explicated in the Indlulamithi Scenarios as a Vulture State. This perhaps is what the national dialogue should be about. But necessary as it is, the intervention tends to be a palliative consisting of grants and the like. In Kenya the assistive government system is far lower than in South Africa. This to an extent exposes the youth of Kenya to the immediacy of their challenge, whereas in South Africa that immediacy is muted by R350 per month and an apartheid infrastructure that has kept the native populations hidden far from power centres. These centres of power, by being occupied by populations largely from the continent, Asia and South Africa's middle class, act as a buffer relative to the in-your-face experiences of Kenya. So here is the metaphor for the situation represented by a dog and a hyena that meet one day. The hyena admires the fur of the dog. Asking the dog why when times are so tough, the dog's fur is so smooth and not scrubby like that of the hyena, the dog replies that its master feeds and takes care of it, and it even has a house. Impressed, the hyena wants to join the dog at its master's place, until it notices a ring around the neck that looks unnatural and where the fur has disappeared. The hyena asks the dog about the collar. The dog replies, master keeps me on a leash. That's it, the hyena says, no leash for me. Freedom is what I need. So it looks like the R350 and other programmes are these multiple leashes. The contemplative polemic buried in your question, Mabuza tells me, addresses the form and palliative nature of these multiple leashes that lull the nerves of the youth who often sit heads in their hands, eyes fixated on an empty future. And, she adds, each of your columns seek to undo the links of these chains. The deliberative polemic brought even more clarity as Mabuza began to plough into my metaphor: 'Your parable of the dog and the hyena so elegantly captures the psychological and structural trade-offs that we've normalised in South Africa: the appearance of care, comfort and protection masking a deeper restraint on agency, imagination and action. That collar — soft but constraining — is precisely what so many of our young people wear. Not visible, yet profoundly shaping posture, movement, and ultimately, destiny. 'What struck me most in your reply was the idea that the R350 and other social grants, while vital in a context of deep deprivation, have inadvertently become part of a broader architecture of containment. They soothe but do not solve. They stabilise but do not transform. And, as you rightly point out, they lull the nerves while futures remain locked behind structural bars. 'Your framing also challenged me to reflect more critically on what I've been trying to do through my columns. You've helped me see that what I am writing is not just analysis — it is an attempt to unhook the leash, one link at a time. Not to attack the dog or romanticise the hyena, but to ask a more fundamental question: what kind of freedom are we prepared to fight for, and what are we willing to give up to claim it?' This perhaps is what the national dialogue should be about. • Nomvula Mabuza is a risk governance and compliance specialist with extensive experience in strategic risk and industrial operations and an MBA candidate at Henley Business School • Dr Pali Lehohla is a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa
The Star
7 hours ago
- The Star
Fikile Mbalula challenges DA to withdraw from Government of National Unity
Siyabonga Sithole | Published 6 hours ago ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula has challenged the DA to withdraw from the Government of National Unity (GNU) following the party's recent threats to boycott the upcoming National Dialogue. This confrontation between the two parties follows hot on the heels of President Cyril Ramaphosa's recent axing of former deputy minister Andrew Whitfield, who allegedly undertook an unauthorised trip to the United States. DA leader John Steenhuisen, addressing the media on Saturday slammed Ramaphosa's decision, claiming it was indicative of President Ramaphosa's inconsistent approach to governance while also "threatening to destabilise the GNU unless all so-called delinquent ministers are removed from their positions within 48 hours. However Mbalula who was speaking during the 3rd day of the OR Tambo Regional Conference in the Eastern Cape on Sunday stated that the GNU is not a permanent feature but a temporary partnership among all the coalition parties. Mbalula stated that the ANC and its President will not be bullied and disrespected by the DA and its leaders who continuously threaten to destabilse the GNU. "When the Government of National Unity was formed with the ten political parties, it was not a permanent feature. So, we will not allow for our President to be disrespected by his deputy ministers. "Even Nelson Mandela fired his own wife. My mother Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela Mandela. Mandela took him out of the cabinet. Thabo Mbeki as president also did the same when he fired Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. We can't then be disrespected by a small boy who is being protected by the DA. We are not in a marriage with the DA but we are in a coalition," he said. Mbalula who addressed delegates to one of the party's biggest regions in the Eastern Cape, the OR Tambo Region- which is one of the most influential ANC regions in the country said that those who had accused the ANC of selling out when it partnered with the DA in the GNU would soon realise that the ANC has an upper hand in the coalition. "They must know one thing. We are not at the mercy of the DA. We are in this coalition because we respected the outcomes of the elections and the interests of the people of South Africa. That is why we have characterised this as a strategic setback. "It is not a permanent feature. The GNU is not a melting pot. We did say that there are ten political parties in the GNU and the DA did not want this. Now, I see why they did not want this as they wanted to squeeze us and put us in a corner, but we turned the tables around and we put them in our own trap. Now they arein a deeper trap," he added. Mbalula's tough stance against the DA has been echoed by ANC spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri who on Saturday said it is the DA and not the ANC that went to the United States to complain about these redress policies and lobby other like-minded right-wing organisations in the U.S. "It is the Democratic Alliance that went abroad to the United States to complain about these redress policies and lobby other like-minded right-wing organisations in the U.S., not the ANC and mobilised against transformative policies. "The statement of intent is very clear. It says all the parties that are signatory to the statement will not tamper with redress policies. The DA has been to court I do not know how many times challenging the land expropriation act, the Bela act, the NHI act and the employment equity legislation. Those are but four major transformative legislation. They have also campaigned furiously against the BEE laws. "It is for South African to figure out who is violating the statement of intent," Bhengu-Motsiri told the SABC on Saturday. Efforts to reach both DA spokespeople, Willie Aucamp and Karabo Khakhau were unsuccessful on Sunday. [email protected]
