COSATU profoundly disagrees with the ANC’s decision to send Brian Molefe to parliament

The Congress of South African Trade Unions expresses its profound disapproval of the decision by the ANC to send Brian Molefe to parliament ,as a new Member of Parliament. The federation views this appointment as regrettable and unhelpful because Brian Molefe remains tainted by the Public Protector’s state capture report. He left some unanswered questions at Eskom and the people of this country deserve some answers from him

While, we do not condone any public lynching of those, who have not been found guilty by the courts of law; we feel that Mr Molefe has so far failed to account and explain himself to South Africans. His dramatic resignation from Eskom raised more questions than answers.

He should have been allowed to clear his name first before being appointed to parliament. This decision does not help the fight against corruption ,and also does very little to convince South Africans that the ANC has managed to decode the message sent by voters in last year’s local government elections.

It looks like the business as usual mentality still prevails and nothing has changed. Regrettably , this also plays into the narrative that the centre is no longer holding in the ANC and that the movement is not interested in what people have to say. COSATU believes that we cannot afford to be selective when fighting corruption. We need to fearlessly fight corruption in both the public and the private sector.

Statement issued by COSATU, 24 February 2017