Fikile Mbalula biography: age, wife, education, Tweets, cars, scandal, and contact details
Fikile Mbalula is one of the South African legislators who has served government positions for the longest time. He is the current Minister of Transport, a position that he is serving for the first time since he started serving ministerial positions. Here is everything you need to know about him.
Source: UGC
Fikile Mbalula is the minister of Transport. Initially, he was the minister of Sports and Recreation, a position that he served between 2010 and 2017. He is currently facing charges for corruption and misusing public funds. According to the allegations, the minister is said to have gone for a vacation with his family, a vacation whose expenses are alleged to have been cleared by one of the suppliers in the ministry. Details of his biography will give more details about the scandal that is facing him.
Fikile Mbalula biography
Where was Fikile Mbalula born?
The former minister of sport and current minister of Transport was born on the 8th of April 1971 in Free State, South Africa. As of date, Fikile Mbalula age is forty-eight.
READ ALSO: Mbalula ready to take on Zuma's allegations at Zondo Commission
Is Fikile Mbalula married?
Source: UGC
Very little is known about his family apart from the fact that he is married. The name of Fikile Mbalula wife is Nozuko Mbalula.
Fikile Mbalula qualifications
According to Fikile Mbalula education details, he is an academically accomplished man. He boasts of holding a master's degree in Economics. He also went to the Careers Research and Information Centre where he underwent training for leadership skills.
Fikile Mbalula political career
Source: UGC
Mbalula Fikile is one of the people who have served in the government for the longest time. His history in leadership dates back to 1986 when he served as the president of the Youth Congress of Botshabelo. In 1987, he served the position of Public Secretary of the youth congress of Botshabelo. That same year, he served in the Botshabelo Youth Congress as the vice-president.
In 1989, he served in the United Democratic Front as the area member in 1989. In 1990 he got a secretarial position in the ANC Provisional Youth Committee. He also had a secretarial position in the African National Congress Youth League where he served between 1991 and 1994. In 1994, he went a rank higher to serve in the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) as the provincial secretary. He served this position for two years after which he was appointed as the secretary in the African National Congress Youth League's political education docket. He served this position between 1996 and 1998.
In 1998, he joined the Local Branch Executive Committee of South African Youth Congress (Sayco) where he was a member. In 2004, he was appointed as the president of the International Union of Socialist Youth.
Ministerial position
Source: UGC
In May 2009, Fikile Mbalula was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Police, a position that he served until October 2010. In November 2010, he was appointed as the Minister of Sport and Recreation, where he served until the 25th of May and was later on re-appointed to serve the same position from the 26th of May to the 30th of March 2017. On the 31st of March 2017, there was a cabinet reshuffle in the country, a move that saw him land the position of the Minister of Police.
In May 2019 after the general elections, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced his cabinet. Fikile landed the position of the Minister of Transport. This is the position that he is currently serving.
Besides these ministerial positions that the latter has served, he is an active member of the African National Congress: the ruling political party in South Africa. He is also a member of the African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee.
The minister has actively been involved in the country's political matters, considering the remarks that he has been making on Fikile Mbalula Twitter account. Fikile Mbalula Instagram is not an exception as the minister has also used it for political reasons. He is among the legislators who have made their stand about testifying in the Zondo Commission.
Fikile Mbalula Tweets
Source: UGC
The Minister of Transport has also played an important role in ensuring that he fixes the issue of safety on the means of transport. His tweets are evidence that the minister looks forward to combating the issue of road carnage.
Fikile Mbalula cars
On the first week on July 2019, the Minister of Transport brought forth the allegations about a group of fifteen people who had a hand in importing illegal cars into the country. The Minister brought this issue to the attention after those who had been involved were arrested. He also issued a warning to the rest of the country. According to the allegations, the man behind the whole case was a foreigner by the name Tunde Badmus.
Fikile Mbalula contact details
The minister is actively on his social media pages. Therefore, if you wish to contact him, you can do through the following contact details;
Twitter: @MbalulaFikile
Facebook: Fikile Mbalula
Instagram: fikilembalula
Fikile Mbalula latest news
On the 6th of August 2019, AfriForum, a lobby group based in Johannesburg, stated that it was going to file charges against the minister of Transport: Fikile Mbalula. The charges are said to regard a trip that the latter had gone to alongside his family in 2017. According to the allegations, all the expenses of the trip were paid by the government's supplier of sports products.
AfriForum anti-corruption unit vs Fikile Mbalula
The head of AfriForum anti-corruption unit: Monique Taute, was quoted saying;
AfriForum requested the Public Protector [Busisiwe Mkhwebane] in 2017 to investigate the trip. She found that Mbalula had violated the Constitution and other legislation in this regard. She further ordered the National Prosecuting Authority to launch an investigation into whether the funds used to pay for the trip had been proceeds from money laundering or not. However, the NPA has yet to take steps against Mbalula
According to the investigation that was carried out by the Public Protector, one of the suppliers: Sedgars Sport, which was in charge of supplying formal sportswear, was involved in the scandal. The supplier helped the minister settle the bill for the expenses of the holiday after the minister failed to pay the bills.
This incident happened at the time when Fikile Mbalula was serving the position of Sports minister between 2010 and 2017.
`The allegations of the scandal were first brought up by Tshepo Mhlongo: a member of the parliament of the Democratic Alliance after she found out that the minister had made the trip to Dubai. The member of parliament found out that Fikile and his family flew first class to Dubai and spent the vacation in Palm Beach Hotel, Atlantis, all in at the expense of Sedgars Sport.
According to the Public protector, the minister did not fulfill the requirement of the law to submit the details of his family to the Register of Members Interests. Even though the minister claimed to have settled the expenses of the trip, the Public Protector found out that the minister was not even aware of the expenses of the trip.
'Dirty money'
To make the issue worse, the travel agency had tried severally to try and reach out to the minister in a bid to have him settle the bill, in vain. The travelling agency, therefore, made a resolve to seek a debt collector who ended up taking a payment from Sedgars Sport.
According to Monique Taute, AfriForum was forced to lay the charges after NPA failed to do so. The organisation alleged that the minister has gone for a vacation whose expenses were paid using 'dirty money' that was from an unfair act, especially to Sedgars Sport. Monique went further to affirm that no politician was above the law, and since the minister was involved in the scandal, it was just for the body to file charges against him. The organisation confirmed to have laid charges against the minister for instigating corruption and money laundering. The charges were filed at the Brooklyn police station.
The scandal about the trip to Dubai first surfaced in 2018 when the Public Protector released a report that alleged that R680,000 was used to fund the holiday that the minister had gone for during the time that he was serving the position of the Minister of Sport and Recreation.
Fikile's reaction to the claims
Source: UGC
Responding to the allegations that were made regarding his misuse of public funds, the minister stated that he had taken a loan "two decades" before the trip. In a statement he said:
Mr [Yusuf] Dockrat decided to make the loan to me through Reimon Uniforms. This was a decision he made in his own discretion. The loan was concluded with him in his personal capacity. Sedgars Sport did not give the loan, nor did it pay for my family vacation, in any way.
He went further to state:
I planned the holiday having anticipated that I would receive funds, prior to my holiday, from the sale of a property by a company in which I hold shares. The transaction was agreed upon in about May 2016, but was delayed. As a result of the funds not being available by December 2016, I made arrangements with Munlin Travel that I would pay for the trip on our return from Dubai.
I consider it regrettable that [Mkhwebane] has chosen to make the adverse findings against me. It has now become necessary for me to consider challenging the findings in a court of law
Even though these allegations were made in 2018, the NPA did not take any action against the minister. This became a huge concern, and as a result, AfriForum anti-corruption unit took the leap of faith to file charges against Fikile Mbalula.
READ ALSO:
- AfriForum lays criminal charges against Mbalula over luxury Dubai trip
- Mbalula: ANC's results would have dropped to 40% if not for Ramaphosa
- Fikile Mbalula says that scrapping e-tolls is not a simple question
Source: Briefly News
