Durban - Police Minister Bheki Cele has remained tight-lipped regarding what transpired during his meeting with former President Jacob Zuma, and says he will first brief the ruling ANC before discussing the matter with the media and the public.
Cele unexpectedly jetted into Nkandla, today, to meet with the former head of state.
The meeting comes amid an escalating stand-off between Zuma and the Zondo commission, which is probing allegations of state capture between 2009 and 2018 - the period when Zuma was the country’s president.
Cele was initially blocked by a uniformed battalion of MK (Umkhonto weSizwe) veterans who have been guarding Zuma’s Nkandla home since Sunday. The veterans were deployed in anticipation of Zuma being arrested for defying a summons to appear before the commission.
Cele’s spokesperson, Lirandzu Themba, said Cele went to see Zuma in his capacity as a state minister and a member of the national executive committee (NEC) of the ANC.
“(The) minister has concluded his visit with the former president and will update ANC leadership on his visit first, before he engages the media. There’s no date as to when he will be meeting the ANC… He was there in both capacities, as the police minister and an NEC member of the ANC,” Themba said.
Over the weekend, the ANC NEC resolved that the ANC send a delegation to meet with Zuma and talk to him about his defiance of the commission.
Political Bureau