Minister Blade Nzimande denies OUTA corruption claims

Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Blade Nzimande, has made an attempt to assure the public that he did not receive money from any of his department’s entities to fund the South African Communist Party (SACP), as suggested in a report by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA).

Addressing a media briefing in Pretoria on Monday, the Minister refuted allegations that he received personal kickbacks from service providers to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) or any of the other entities falling under his departments.

The report by OUTA also alleges that payments were made to NSFAS board chair Ernest Khosa as well as at least R1 million to the SACP.

“I therefore wish to dismiss this baseless insinuation by OUTA, some organisations, including some sections of the media, that I as Minister was involved in some form of corruption at NSFAS. These are all lies that emanate from a malicious fight back campaign. My conscience is clear, and I have nothing to hide or fear.

“As stated in my statement on 5 January, I reserve my rights to take the necessary legal action and I have voluntarily decided that I am going to subject myself to the relevant legal processes and ethics bodies of the African National Congress (ANC) and the SACP,” Nzimande said.

Since the voice recordings surfaced, there has been several calls from civil society including political parties, demanding that the Minister resign and must be investigated.

PAC calls on the SIU to investigate Nzimande

The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) said the allegations against Minister Nzimande using the Higher Education sector as a way to channel money for himself and the SACP are not new.

“The PAC student movement, PASMA, has for years called for Blade’s removal over allegations of using the TVET sector and SETAs to steal money from the state. The PAC is, however, not surprised. These are the natural results of a petty bourgeois post-colonial nationalist dispensation.

“Sobukwe long warned us that we do not have communists in occupied Azania in the form of the SACP. He long denounced them as quakes. It is Fanon, in the Pitfalls of National Consciousness who teaches us that the post-colonial nationalist petty bourgeois class is a parasitic class. It lacks creativity. Its survival is not based in the creation of new industries but in the milking of the state and its organs, the PAC said in a statement.

It added that the national petty bourgeois class created by the ANC post 1994 is no different, labeling it as a class that has survived from milking the state by stealing monies meant for the poor.

“What is currently happening at NSFAS and is shown in the recordings that have been leaked proves once more the long-held position of the PAC that the 1994 deal was not a deal that has any capacity to deliver for the poor.”

The PAC urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to remove Nzimande from cabinet and called on the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate the alleged corruption at NSFAS and the DHET.

However, the PAC also raised concerns about what it calls “the role of the invisible hand of white power” in this matter.

“For the PAC, it is not a coincident that the white NGO, OUTA started being interested all of a sudden in corruption at NSFAS after white capital was denied the tender to manage direct payments to students.

“While we must vigorously call out the petty bourgeois parasitic class, we must not lose site of the invisible hand of white power in trying to take back power and control of the country back to their hands, the PAC warned.