Image via GCIS
Image via GCIS
Minister of Human Settlements and Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu has come under fire on Friday, after it was revealed that the ANC Cabinet member had handed roles in her office to two dubious characters: Both Mo Shaik and Menzi Simelane – implicated in state capture – will serve as her “special advisors”.
Mo Shaik and Menzi Simelane – who are they?
If you’re unfamiliar with those names, that’s because they did a good job of staying in the shadows during the Jacob Zuma administration. Shaik previously worked as on of the country’s leading intelligence bosses. Simelane is more of a rough diamond, though. He served his time as NDPP, but trouble soon followed. Here’s why both of Lindiwe Sisulu’s appointments are seen as “shady”:
Mo Shaik
- Was influential in falsely branding ex-NDPP Bulelani Ngcuka as “an apartheid spy”.
- Had previously declined to investigate the Gupta family before a change of heart years later.
- The DA – and his political opponents – have accused him of standing idly by while in a power of position and failing to clamp down on state capture.
Menzi Simelane
- His appointment as NDPP was declared “inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid” by the courts.
- Simelane was infamously barred from practising law in South Africa, and has links to the Gupta brothers.
- Has previously raised controversy by appearing on Lindiwe Sisulu’s slate for the 2017 ANC Elective Conference. Her bid for the leadership was scuppered, and Simelane’s support raised questions.
DA vent rage at Lindiwe Sisulu
Naturally, the DA are upset by these developments. Mo Shaik’s bombshell testimony at the State Capture Inquiry last year – where he confirmed Jacob Zuma was more bothered about seving the Gupta brothers than South Africa – hasn’t been enough to get him onside with the DA’s shadow deputy minister of water and sanitation: Emma-Louise Powell was scathing in her assessment of both him and Menzi Simelane.
“The South African taxpayer is now officially paying the likely exorbitant salaries of Menzi Simelane and Mo Shaik, who have both been implicated for their role in state capture. It’s lunacy to justify the expenditure of taxpayer money on the appointment of politically-connected cadres without having received a CV from them.”
“We will file a complaint at the Public Service Commission to investigate Lindiwe Sisulu’s appointments, and will request the salaries of these individuals, and others working in the Minister’s office – given her office’s refusal to disclose their price tags. Simelane and Shaik may also be her allies if she runs for ANC Deputy President.”
Emma-Louise Powell
