POLL | Would you join Carl Niehaus’s new political movement?

04 January 2023 - 13:02
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ANC members led by Carl Niehaus and Supra Mahumapelo march on July 15 2022 to Luthuli House in Johannesburg to demand President Cyril Ramaphosa step down. Picture: Freddy Mavunda © Business Day
ANC members led by Carl Niehaus and Supra Mahumapelo march on July 15 2022 to Luthuli House in Johannesburg to demand President Cyril Ramaphosa step down. Picture: Freddy Mavunda © Business Day
Image: Freddy Mavunda

Former Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association spokesperson and ANC member Carl Niehaus has announced his next steps, saying he is starting his own political movement.

Niehaus was expelled from the ruling party last month after a disciplinary hearing in which he “failed to show remorse”. He tendered his resignation from the ANC two weeks later.

At the time he said his expulsion was suspended as he had filed an application to appeal the decision.

Niehaus seems to have moved on since then, however, telling TimesLIVE this week he is creating his own political movement.

“It is a political movement. I emphasise the word ‘political’, but of course it will have a broad civil society base,” he said.

He said he was consulting with many people in religious and civil society spaces, while also engaging with politicians from different parties.

Niehaus said the movement will “provide the opportunity to people from different political parties, including also those who are committed to the ideals of radical economic transformation but who are still inside the ANC, to be able to participate”.

Niehaus claimed the ANC had lost its ideological roots, was no longer a liberation movement under President Cyril Ramaphosa and was no longer a pro-poor party.

“Ultimately, I believe my fellow comrades in the ANC will see the way and eventually leave the party,” he said.

Niehaus said more announcements would be made soon, indicating “how broad and how deep the base of the support for this movement is”.

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