DURBAN - THE ANC in KwaZulu-Natal said it would not prevent Carl Niehaus, the former spokesperson of the now-disbanded uMkhonto WeSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA), from election campaigning for the party in the province.
ANC provincial spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela on Wednesday said that if Niehaus wishes to campaign, his party cannot stop him as everybody was allowed to campaign for the ANC.
However, Ntombela said Niehaus was suspended from the ANC and therefore this would mean he was contravening the party that suspended him.
“I am not aware of him campaigning as the information I have was that he was suspended. If it is the branches that invited him to campaign then those branches must be approached to respond as to why they did so, but no one can be stopped from campaigning for the ANC,” he said.
Niehaus said his ANC membership remained intact as his suspension had lapsed and that he would be actively campaigning for his party ahead of the local government elections.
Speaking to the Daily News on Wednesday, Niehaus said he would start in KZN next week where he was invited by some branches to assist.
“I am a member of the ANC in good standing and I will be campaigning for the party. As a long-standing member of the ANC, with 42 years of uninterrupted membership, which qualifies me as an ANC veteran, I am glad that the temporary suspension of my membership has lapsed already a considerable time ago (although I have only today [on Wednesday] been informed accordingly). I have dedicated my whole adult life to the ANC,” he said.
ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte on Wednesday informed Niehaus that the ANC’s temporary suspension was valid for 30 days or until set aside by the ANC’s National Disciplinary Committee of Appeals.
“The ANC constitution also set out, specifically in rule 25.65, that a temporary suspension would lapse if a notice of a charge was not delivered to a member within 30 days from the date of its commencement of the temporary suspension. I trust this explanation serves to inform you of your current status as an ANC member,“ she said to Niehaus.
In his response, Niehaus wrote on Tuesday: “I request that the fact that the suspension of my ANC membership has lapsed because I have not been charged within 30 days of having been suspended should be announced in a similarly high-profile manner by the ANC.
“Such a similarly high-profile announcement will not only assist to undo the damage of the initial announcement, but it will also assist me in order to carry out my duties and responsibilities as a member of the ANC.”
On July 7, Niehaus was suspended by the ANC after it claimed he had made inflammatory remarks, bringing the party into disrepute during the Nkandla gathering outside former president Jacob Zuma’s home.
Daily News