Stung by a letter from President Cyril Ramaphosa pleading with them to end corruption in the party, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Monday said it was “serious about rooting out corruption” from the country.
Ramaphosa on Sunday pleaded in a letter to his fellow party members to end the vice following increased incidents of corruption in the organisation, especially among party officials holding government positions at both national and lower levels.
The president noted that in the past five months the nation had witnessed abuse of the awarding of Covid-19 tenders to unqualified firms and individuals, including a person who died two years ago having been awarded a tender to supply personal protective equipment to government.
In addition, Ramaphosa urged party members facing corruption allegations to step aside from their duties while their cases were being heard in court in compliance with party resolutions.
Responding to the president’s concerns, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said “the letter the president wrote to them was consistent with what was expressed by the party’s national executive committee (NEC) recently.”
“This is just a demonstration that we are quite serious about dealing with the rot of corruption in the country,” Mabe said.
He added: “Before the president wrote this letter, Secretary General Ace Magashule conveyed a memo on the need to declare interests by ANC leaders, MPs and councilors so that we can have records of the financial interests our cadres have.”
Meanwhile, the ANC Veterans League on Monday said it wanted the decision to redeploy former Durban mayor Zandile Gumede to be reversed as a member of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature.
The former mayor is facing corruption charges in court related to a tender fraud worth US$12 million involving a waste removal contract when she was in office.
NM/jn/APA