New Police Minister Mbalula Has A Mammoth Task Ahead

Mbalula returns to the police ministry where he was a deputy minister in 2009.
Former Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula, now Police Minister.
Former Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula, now Police Minister.
Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu

From Razzmatazz to police blues, newly minted police minister Fikile Mbalula has a mammoth task ahead of him.

And that is to shed the image of the globe-trotting, fun-loving minister after he was named the new police minister, replacing Nathi Nhleko.

Nhleko, who suffered through the firepool Nkandla report a few years ago, has been moved to public works.

The police ministry is not new to Mbalula, who served as the deputy minister of police in 2009, before he was moved to sport in 2010.

The 45-year-old minister is also a member of the ANC's national executive committee and a former youth league president.

'I respect whatever comes my way'

The vocal Mbalula was on Twitter on Thursday night, saying he was still the minister of sport and had not been appointed anywhere.

"I respect whatever comes my way or even not, I knew from the onset to be in this positions is a privilege not a right [sic]," he then said.

Nhleko's term has been riddled with controversy, with the latest being a court ruling that declared his appointment of General Berning Ntlemeza unlawful.

A full bench unanimously agreed that Nhleko's decision was irrational and that Ntlemeza is not fit nor proper to hold the position.

But Nhleko has appealed the decision.

This is just one of the cases that Mbalula will inherit as the new minister.

In 2012, the then sports minister Mbalula said he had no time" for President Jacob Zuma and has rebuffed efforts by Zuma lobbyists to "neutralise" him.

"They came to me and offered me a position to neutralise me," he was reported as saying in The Star.

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