Mboweni's comments 'malicious' : Nzimande

[LazyLion]

Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande said comments about him by ANC national executive committee member Tito Mboweni were "malicious".

"I'm quite surprised about his statement that he would like to continue doing work with universities... provided I don't block him," Nzimande told Sapa on Thursday.

"I regard this as a malicious statement."

He was reacting to the former SA Reserve Bank governor's statement, uploaded on Facebook on Wednesday, clarifying why he asked to be removed from the list of African National Congress members going to Parliament.

"I will continue to work with universities and pass on my experience to the students," Mboweni said in the statement.

"I very much enjoy this work. If the minister of higher education does not block my nominations, I will also play a role as chancellor or chairman of council at one or the other university."

Nzimande said he was upset that Mboweni had made such a statement publicly, and believed he could have spoken to him personally.

"We've never had conversations about this before. I don't appoint chancellors or chairpersons of councils of universities... so there is no way I would be able to block anybody," he said.

Nzimande said he would confront Mboweni on the matter.


Source : Sapa /gq/jk/jje/th
Date : 22 May 2014 15:04

 

[Sean008]

Seems like a rift between ole Pooza-face Nzimande and the former Governor !

 

[Creag]

Politics can be a nasty place to find yourself. Tito would have done well in parliament, but he has a lot to offer in his chosen role.

 

[LazyLion]

MBOWENI WAS NOT REFERRING TO NZIMANDE

ANC bigwig Tito Mboweni has denied he was referring to Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande in Facebook comments this week.

"...Why would anybody think that I was referring to Dr Blade Nzimande?" he asked on his Facebook page on Friday.

On Wednesday, Mboweni on his Facebook page clarified why he asked to be removed from the list of African National Congress members going to Parliament.

"I will continue to work with universities and pass on my experience to the students," Mboweni said at the time.

"I very much enjoy this work. If the minister of higher education does not block my nominations, I will also play a role as chancellor or chairman of council at one or the other university."

On Thursday, Nzimande said he found the comments "malicious".

"I'm quite surprised about his statement that he would like to continue doing work with universities... provided I don't block him... I regard this as a malicious statement."

On Friday, Mboweni said he would speak to Nzimande about the matter.

"I will call Dr Nzimande tomorrow because I think that there is a major miscommunication here," he said.

"I did not talk about the past, this was forward looking. I don't know who the [new] minister is going to be. We will only know this after the [presidential] inauguration... on Saturday... Is he the minister going forward? I don't know! If he is I don't think he would do that."


Source : Sapa /mar/jk/jje
Date : 23 May 2014 09:03