‘Her pension is handsome in the high, if not tens of millions’: Mbali Ntuli says axed Lindiwe Sisulu will be fine
Former DA KwaZulu-Natal MPL Mbali Ntuli has weighed in on Lindiwe Sisulu losing her seat in the latest cabinet reshuffle, saying she will be fine.
Sisulu was cut this week when President Cyril Ramaphosa announced long-awaited changes to the national executive.
She was replaced as tourism minister by former public works minister Patricia de Lille.
Ntuli said Sisulu has been a minister “forever” and probably has a “handsome” pension in the millions.
“She will be fine. She’s been a minister forever. Her pension is handsome in the high, if not tens of millions by now. She will also get four months of her salary for every term she’s completed as a gratuity to ease her transition,” said Ntuli.
“This is assuming she doesn’t sit as a backbencher MP, of course. I take it as a given that, considering what she would lose out on financially if she did that, she wouldn’t go that route. It’s not to say she is unemployed because she is out of [the] cabinet.”
Sisulu entered parliament as an MP after the 1994 elections.
She previously held portfolios including minister of human settlements, water and sanitation, international relations and co-operation, housing, intelligence, public service and administration and minister of defence.
In her tourism portfolio, she came under fire for a R1bn Tottenham Hotspur deal.
Last year, Sisulu challenged Ramaphosa for the ANC presidential job. She threw her hat in the ring with a pledge to reform the ANC and do away with “the money element that is destroying the quality” of the party.
“I think it is the driving force behind current elections, which are money-driven, that makes it very difficult for women.
“It is the money element that is destroying the quality and essence of what we represent. We [as women] would like to make sure we put the ANC on course and make sure we take our place,” Sisulu told 702.
She said the use of money is irregular for a political organisation with roots like the ANC's.
“Remove the money element and tell me if we would come to the same conclusion about who has been appointed who now. The use of money is irregular for a political organisation that has the origins we have in the ANC, and the sooner we reform the system of elections in the ANC, the better it will be for the future.”
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