All ruling African National Congress party members facing corruption charges should step aside within 30 days until their cases have been finalised in South African courts, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.
The president said this when he addressed the nation Monday night to brief it on the proceedings of the ANC’s National Executive Committee meeting held at the weekend at the party’s head office in Johannesburg.
ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule is one of the members facing corruption charges in court over his awarding a tender when he led the Free State Provincial government.
During the meeting Magashule told fellow NEC members that he would do some consultations with past leaders on his next move following the NEC decision for him to step down.
The NEC resolved that those who fail to step down would be forced to do so.
While Magashule had previously refused to step down from the high post last year following his court charges, this time he told the meeting that he would make consultations before deciding on his next move to conform to the NEC proceedings, Ramaphosa said.
“The NEC welcomed the decision by the ANC Secretary-General, Comrade Ace Magashule, to use this time to seek the counsel of past leaders of the movement. The ANC supports our Secretary-General in this effort,” the ANC party president said.
Magashule belongs to the ANC faction that still considers the disgraced former president Jacob Zuma as its leader in spite of the latter being ousted from power in February 2018 following state capture allegations whose proceedings were still in court.
Apart from making efforts to root out corruption from the ruling party, Ramaphosa told the nation that the NEC also condemned current developments that have seen party members setting up factions within the organisation.
Ramaphosa warned the so-called Radical Economic Transformation (RET) advocates to refrain from embarking on these factional campaigns.
“The NEC condemned the establishment of groups operating as an organised faction within the ANC to undermine the ideological and organisational integrity of the ANC,” the president said.
He added: “The meeting agreed that no ANC member should associate themselves with or be involved in the so-called ‘RET Forces’.
NM/jn/APA