Recent comments on ANC’s handling of Zuma Nkandla saga not a ‘confession’, says Mbalula

JOHANNESBURG - African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General Fikile Mbalula said his recent comments about the party's handling of former President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla saga were not a confession, but the truth of the many difficulties the party experienced under his leadership.

Zuma is now the face of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which is currently campaigning against the ANC.

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Mbalula brought the matter up again on Saturday in Botlokwa, Limpopo, at the funeral of the five ANC members who died in a bus accident on their way to the party's 112th-anniversary rally.

His comments about the party misleading Parliament and insisting a swimming pool was a firepool resulted in a backlash against the ANC's Secretary General.

Mbalula also used the sombre occasion to hit out at ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa's detractors.

"They'll say Mbalula is speaking of fire pools, he's confessing. What confession when I am merely telling the truth? Talking about the things we experienced? The problems we had to deal with? But we held on. We didn't fight anyone. We didn't chase anyone away. Cyril didn't fight with anyone."