The credibility of the current ANC NEC meeting on corruption will be determined by how the issue of alleged vote buying is addressed; NEC members must not be found wanting
29 August 2020
The current special meeting of the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC), that commenced yesterday afternoon with corruption as it’s main agenda point, is likely to go down in history as one of the most crucial NEC meetings in the 108 year history of the ANC.
The African National Congress (ANC) is in the throws of an existential crisis, with public outrage about the large scale wanton looting of COVID-19 funds, accompanied by billions of Rands being unaccounted for, massively inflated prices in tenders for personal protection equipment (PPE’s), and the emergency solidarity funds and the much touted Social Relief Grants having only been received by a mere fraction of the intended recipients.
The critical questions are: Where have all the billions of Rands gone? Why are the majority of black poor intended recipients not receiving the promised assistance? Who are the private sector companies, corrupt government officials and political leaders who are instead gorging themselves like pigs on relief money for the poor?
Public outrage, negative sentiment, and downright cynicism about the ANC as the governing party being able to address the needs and hopes of the large majority of poor South Africans have reached unprecedented levels. This is reflected in the tsunami of abusive and negative comments on social media directed at the African National Congress and its leadership, as articulated through the “VoetsekANC” campaign. At the core of all of this is the African National Congress’ apparent inability to deal with widespread corruption, that has bedeviled service delivery for a long time in South Africa, but has now reached a crisis with the COVID-19 looting. It has become the proverbial last straw that broke the camels back.
At stake is the ANC’s continued role as the leader of society, and remaining the governing party in South Africa. In fact if the ANC NEC fails to effectively and comprehensively address the issue of corruption its continued existence is at stake. It is certainly not a cliche to say that it is now literally a make or break situation for the ANC.
Last week the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA) issued a hard hitting statement warning that the ANC is confronted with an unprecedented credibility crisis. It warned that while every manifestation of corruption should be condemned, exposed and acted against, “the stealing and misappropriation of COVID-19 funds is truly beyond the pale, and it’s moral depravity and disdain for the people of our country is unequalled, and contravenes every principle that the ANC should stand for”.
However, MKMVA expressed concern that the factionalism and disunity in the ANC has taken on such unequalled proportions that the ANC is literally paralyzed, and as a consequence no only fails to address the challenge of corruption, but also fails to implement the critical Radical Economic Transformation (RET) Resolutions that are meant to economically empower black (especially African) South Africans. As the Gauteng RET Jacob Zuma Support Group that are committed to the implementation of the ANC’s official Radical Economic Transformation (RET) economic policy programme, this is for us a matter of very serious concern.
Since MKMVA had issued that statement there have been disturbing signs that the ANC NEC leaders are not appreciating the extent and depth of the crisis that we are faced with. The warning that certain comrades should not be singled out for factional purposes, while others - despite serious allegations against them - are not pursued at all, is evidently not followed.
Instead we have seen a continuing of statements by some NEC members (most of them cowardly hiding behind the cloak of anonymity) stoking on the fires of selective outrage of claims of corruption only against certain comrades, while others - no matter how serious the allegations of corruption - are not pursued at all.
Just this past week the Integrity Commission of the ANC wrote to the Secretary General (SG) of the ANC demanding that he should appear before it to answer for having said that he will not step aside from his position on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations. The Integrity Commission saw it fit to target comrade Ace Magashule with regards to a political statement by him as the Secretary General of the ANC, who is a political officer and the elected official, who is overall in charge of the administration of the ANC. A statement which is perfectly compliant with the constitutions of the ANC, and of our country.
However, there are other ANC members who have very serious allegations, and actual charges against them, who are not at all called to account. Among those are comrade Thabang Makwetla, a Member of Parliament (MP) and Deputy Minister of Correctional Services whom the joint Committee on Ethics and Member’s interests have found guilty of having contravened the Code of Ethical Conduct and Disclosure of Members’ Interests by having failed to declare gifts, and had BOSASA, a company that was contracted to the Department of Correctional Services to conduct work at his private residence as a gift that he did not pay for. Similarly, the Minister of Small Business Development, comrade Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who has a damning high court judgement implicating her in an inflated tender when she was Municipal Manager at the Ba-Phalaborwa Local Municipality, had never been required by the Integrity Commission to appear before it. The list of such glaring omissions is long, and among others include the Speaker of the National Assembly, comrade Thandi Modise, who has been charged with cruelty to animals, and Derek Hanekom, a member of the NEC and NWC, who by his own admission plotted with the EFF to vote with the opposition in a parliamentary No-Confidence Vote against the incumbent ANC President and President of South Africa, and thus contravened the ANC Constitution. None of these comrades have been required to appear before the Integrity Commission, nor to step aside from their respective positions of deployment. More names of comrades can be mentioned, but these few examples suffice to make the point of inconsistent, selective, and unequal treatment by the Commission.
Considering this unpalatable situation the renowned legal expert, Paul M. Ngobeni, described this selective, cherry-picking, approach by the Integrity Commission about the cases that it takes on as “a worrisome development that seriously undermine the Integrity Commission because of its apparent willingness to serve as a willing, pliable and ever ready weapon for those steeped in ANC factional battles.” ( h t t p : / / constitutionalcrossroads.blogspot.com/2020/08/why-president-ramaphosas-lynch-mob.html).
It is evident that what we are confronted with is a cynical approach by those who do not care at all for the ANC, as the pre-eminent Liberation Movement of South Africa, nor for the millions of black poor South Africans whose hopes for a better life are invested in their over a century-long support for the African National Congress. These individuals who through manipulation and alleged vote-buying have catapulted themselves into positions of power in our beloved Liberation Movement, see the ANC simply as a vehicle for their own self-aggrandizement and enrichment. They do not care at all about the damage that is inflicted on the ANC in the process. In fact they do not care if their conduct will lead to the destruction of the ANC, as long as they can continue to advance their own personal and selfish objectives.
They abuse the ANC as the proverbial Trojan Horse, and when our people quite rightly become enraged by the exploitation and looting of these individuals they do not take personal responsibility for their actions, but hide behind the ANC as an organization. They claim that the ANC as an organizational collective is responsible, even stating that the ANC is Accused Number One in the dock for corruption! The users and abusers that they are, it is clear that their intention is to literally suck the ANC dry. When they achieved their goals they will destroy our beloved Liberation Movement, cast it aside, and simply move on towards a new political vehicle, probably an amorphous neo-liberal party (something akin to what Derek Hanekom envisaged as a back-up when he plotted with the EFF), to continue to oppress and exploit the long suffering masses of poor black (especially African) South Africans. This is not the conduct of comrades, but of sell-outs and parasites!
The members of the Gauteng RET President Zuma Support Group are all longstanding members of the ANC, many of us are liberation soldiers who have served in the People’s Liberation Army, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). Many of us are veterans with more than forty years of selfless service, and uninterrupted ANC membership in good standing. As such we are deeply saddened and insulted that the current President of our beloved Liberation Movement, comrade Cyril Ramaphosa, could sink so low as to refer in an Open Letter, addressed to us as the members of the ANC, that our beloved ANC stands as “Accused No. 1” for corruption.
In having done so President Ramaphosa implicated hundreds of thousands of innocent members of the ANC who are desperately poor, and have never benefitted from corruption. Being part of that membership of the ANC, which President Ramaphosa so callously and recklessly tarnished with the tar brush of corruption, we are deeply insulted and angered. We feel betrayed by our own ANC President, and those leaders in the NEC who supported the sentiments expressed in the President’s letter to us.
In articulating our outrage, we note that the use of baseless allegations of corruption and thievery have increasingly been used by some factionalists and WMC stooges in the ANC, to try and tarnish the image of those of us who remain committed to the full liberation of the people of South Africa, and the implementation of Radical Economic Transformation as the official economic policy programme of the ANC.
In this regard we recall the wild, baseless lies that Ronald Lamola made against the leading members of the Gauteng RET President Zuma Support Group, calling us at an ANC meeting in Midrand “thieves who have stolen money”. This wanton lie was widely reported in the media, and was clearly meant to cause harm to our reputations, as well as to specifically undermine the ANC official economic programme of Radical Economic Transformation.
At the time when Lamola did this, we made it clear that we would never tolerate such slanderous conduct, because this is only the thin edge of the wedge wielded by the wedge drivers that President OR Tambo warned us against, and that eventually the whole ANC would be tarnished by such corruption allegations, as a deliberate attempt to destroy it’s integrity and proud liberation struggle history. That warning is now sadly confirmed by the much broader slanderous allegation that the ANC is Accused No.1 for corruption.
The leading members of the Gauteng RET President Zuma Support Group have filed charges of defamation against Ronald Lamola, and this week we have been informed that he intends to oppose those. That is fine by us! We will see him in court. Similarly to us not being prepared to accept the lies of corruption that Lamola leveled against us as a factional attack tool, we will neither tolerate any broader libelous attempts to tarnish our beloved Liberation Movement as Accused No. 1 for corruption. We will certainly oppose such to the hilt!
We know that it is by no means all the members of the ANC NEC who subscribe to such wild and sweeping allegations. In all fairness, we acknowledge that there are those cadres in the NEC who fully share our outrage. In this regard we specifically acknowledge the sentiments that are reported to have been expressed by one of our own MK commanders, comrade Tony Yengeni, who is a member of both the NEC and NWC of the ANC. We are deeply grateful to those among our leaders who still have the courage of their convictions to stand up in defence of our beloved Liberation Movement, and refuse for it to be trashed by opportunists who are only out to save their own skins, and to continue to enrich themselves. The Gauteng RET President Zuma Support Group is especially grateful to President Jacob Zuma for his spirited defense of the African National Congress in the letter that he wrote yesterday to President Ramaphosa. With his letter Nxamalala once again provided principled leadership, and entrenched his legacy as a true liberation fighter and defender of our revolution.
We fully concur with President Zuma that by overall accusing the ANC for acts of corruption, committed by a few of it’s individual members (some them in close proximity to President Ramaphosa himself), is a betrayal of Pixley ke Isaka Seme, Sol Plaatje, John Langalibele Dube, Rev. Rubusa, Chief Albert Luthuli, Dr. Alfred Xhuma, Dr. Moroka and all of those who assembled on the 8th of January 1912 for the formation of the ANC. The following quote from President Zuma’s letter to President Ramaphosa is seminal:
“You write, for your own desires to plead for white validation and approval, the worst betrayal of Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and others who sacrificed their own freedom for the ANC. With your pen, you desecrate the graves of young men and women who lived and died cruel deaths in the hands of the part heirs security forces and mercenaries. These heroes paid the highest price fighting for our freedom and in defence of the ANC. We should therefore never implicate them when we, as individuals, are accused of corruption and misconduct.”
It is our unwavering belief that statements by President Ramaphosa, and those close to him (and in fact by the NEC of the ANC in general), that they are committed to fight corruption will have no credibility, and will continue to ring hollow, for as long as the serious allegation that huge amounts money (almost R 1 billion Rands) were donated by White Monopoly Capital (WMC) to buy votes, and generally influence the outcome of the leadership elections at the ANC’s 54th National Conference, are not fully investigated by the NEC.
This is an extremely serious matter. The ANC has repeatedly denounced such practices in Resolutions that can be traced back to at least the last four National Conferences of the ANC. We concur with President Zuma that: “... such donations amount to sacrificing the historic mission of the ANC for 30 pieces of silver”. Critical for any credible investigation will be full access to the currently sealed bank accounts reflecting who contributed, how, and with what intention.
The fact that the Integrity Commission has not uttered a single word about this situation, continues to ignore the biggest elephant in the ANC room, and haven’t called those who are alleged to be involved (including President Ramaphosa) to answer to these serious allegations, gives credence to the growing perception that the Integrity Commission is embroiled in the insidious factionalism that bedevils the functioning of the ANC at all levels. The manner in which the Integrity Commission has conducted itself, and the selection of ANC members that they have asked to appear before them, create the very unfortunate - yet distinct - impression that there are different categories of ANC members. Namely, that there are those who can expect to get called to appear before the Commission, and those who are considered to be untouchable, and who simply do not ever get called to appear before it, no matter how serious the allegations against them are.
The litmust test for the current NEC Meeting is whether urgent and decisive action will be taken to fully investigate the serious allegations of vote buying at the ANC 54th National Conference. The fact of the matter is that overall the ANC NEC’s commitment to fight corruption will be judged by that.
The Gauteng RET President Zuma Support Group finds ourselves as part of a broad grass roots movement within our Liberation Movement that will not rest until this matter of alleged vote buying is fully, and satisfactorily, addressed. This is indeed an essential first step to re-cover the revolutionary heart of the ANC and to ensure full, individual, accountability for the every single member of the ANC - especially our leaders.
Issued by Carl Niehaus on behalf of the Gauteng RET President Zuma Support Group, 29 August 2020
