Johannesburg - 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.” - Sapa