The Constitution sets the eligibility bar quite low when it comes to being able to stand for election. Under Section 47(1) eligibility is defined in some detail:

1. Every citizen who is qualified to vote for the National Assembly is eligible to be a member of the Assembly, except ­

a. anyone who is appointed by, or is in the service of, the state and receives remuneration for that appointment or service, other than ­

i. the President, Deputy President, Ministers and Deputy Ministers; and

ii. other office-bearers whose functions are compatible with the functions of a member of the Assembly, and have been declared compatible with those functions by national legislation;

b. permanent delegates to the National Council of Provinces or members of a provincial legislature or a Municipal Council;

c.unrehabilitated insolvents;

d. anyone declared to be of unsound mind by a court of the Republic; or

e. anyone who, after this section took effect, is convicted of an offence and sentenced to more than 12 months imprisonment without the option of a fine, either in the Republic, or outside the Republic if the conduct constituting the offence would have been an offence in the Republic, but no one may be regarded as having been sentenced until an appeal against the conviction or sentence has been determined, or until the time for an appeal has expired. A disqualification under this paragraph ends five years after the sentence has been completed.

Political parties have higher aspirations for those they select for their party lists prior to the elections. The ANC, which has governed at national level since 1994, prepared a detailed document called “Through the Eye of a Needle” in 2001 in order to set its own standards that set out to meet this biblical injunction. Significantly, the document says:

The selection and election of leaders should reside firmly in the hands of the membership. This can only happen if there is open and frank discussion on these issues in formal structures of the movement.  Quiet and secret lobbying opens the movement to opportunism and even infiltration by forces hostile to the ANC’s objectives.

One of the formal structures of the ANC is its Integrity Commission, set up under section 24 of the ANC’s constitution. It gave advice to the top brass of the ANC on the exclusion of compromised members seeking election, but its advice was spurned by the highest decision making body of the ANC between elections, its National Executive Council, who, instead, offered the task of finalising the candidate list to the top seven officials of the ANC, the majority of whom have their own corruption-allegation-crosses to bear.

The result, quite predictably, is a list containing the names of members of the ANC whose suitability for getting through the eye of a needle is highly questionable. Not only are many fingered by the Zondo Commission; on the list, Bheki Cele, perpetually under criminal investigation for his role in those world cup police HQ leases, features, As does Dinah Pule, she of the red shoes fame, who was dealt with sternly by the Ethics Committee in parliament.

Pule ought to have been criminally charged, instead both appear in comfortable spots on the list leaked by the IEC. The late Ben Turok explained at the time that Pule was not charged because “she had suffered enough”. The NPA is incapable of finalising the docket on Cele. The same applies to all of the questionable characters on the ANC’s lists of candidates.

The Eye of the Needle prescriptions that pertain to the corrupt in the ranks of the ANC are clear. It reads:

A leader should lead by example. He should be above reproach in his political and social conduct - as defined by our revolutionary morality. Through force of example, he should act as a role model to ANC members and non-members alike. Leading a life that reflects commitment to the strategic goals of the NDR includes not only being free of corrupt practices; it also means actively fighting against corruption.

When President Ramaphosa took over the leadership of the ANC and the country, his platform was described as one of “renewal and unity”. The latter to deal with factionalism within the ANC and the former to address the need to clean up its act.

Both aspects of the platform have failed.

“Renewal” would properly involve shedding more questionable members that just Jacob Zuma (currently suspended) and Ace Magashule (currently in cahoots with Zuma). Far too many survivors of state capture who are in the Ramaphosa camp are treated as royal game. The National Prosecuting Authority, by design of the ANC, has neither the capacity nor the spine to take charge of criminal cases against those on the election list who have been identified by the Zondo Commission, the Public Protector and other commissions as involved in corruption.

Just under one hundred on the ANC candidates list ought to be in the dock in a criminal case along with many other members of the ANC who may be presumed to know too many of its dark secrets to be kept anywhere other than “in the tent.” The NPA will be kept too weak to mount the necessary prosecutions (quite deliberately so) and the culture of looting with impunity will be continued under the next parliament.

“Unity” could involve compromising the probity and integrity of the ANC by making peace with known criminal elements, many of whom hold high rank at Luthuli House or in parliament.

The inclusion of so many candidates of questionable ethics who do not “actively fight corruption” on the lists presented to the IEC in the run up to the elections due on 29 May may be a matter of political necessity. This sad state of affairs pertains in the ANC world of “smallanyana skeletons” but it remains a gamble on the part of the leadershi  to select questionable characters because the electorate may revolt against voting for those of dubious integrity who currently taint the ANC’s party lists.

There is also the matter of what the Integrity Commission of the ANC will make of its sudden sidelining in favour of what can only be called political expediency and a gross violation of the standards set in the Eye of the Needle document. All of its members are fully entitled to quit.

Mavuso Msimang, an ANC blueblood, was persuaded to retract his resignation from the ANC on a promise that compromised candidates would not surface on the lists. They have, leaving the way open to Msimang to rescind the retraction of his resignation letter which opens with the following words:

It is with profound sadness that I inform you of my decision to terminate my membership of the African National Congress (ANC). I have served the organisation loyally and diligently for over six decades.

For several years now, the ANC has been wracked by endemic corruption, with devastating consequences on the governance of the country and the lives of poor people, of whom there continue to be so many.

The unwillingness of the leadership of the ANC to seize the nettle of corruption could impact profoundly on its prospects at the polling stations. The patience of the poor, who have, despite their lot in life, loyally supported the ANC over the years, may wear thin now that so many other viable options are available to them when they vote.

The ANC Veterans are another grouping that has expressed its dismay at the “soft on corruption” approach of the current leadership of the ANC. Whether they will stir to counteract the perfidy involved in abandoning the advice of the ANC Integrity Commission remains to be seen.

A calculated gamble on what best serves the interests of the ANC has been taken by its top brass. Including tainted candidates on its lists may come back to bite those who took the decision to so include the “baddies” in the leadership and among the parliamentary representatives of the ANC. The line taken certainly lends credence to the view that the ANC is no more than a criminal enterprise bent on looting the country into failed statehood.

In a country in which open, accountable and responsive governance are meant to be the order of the day, it remains to be seen whether the electorate, “We the People”, will go along with this strategy. The supremacy of the rule of law and the ability of the state to respect, protect, promote and fulfil human rights, as required by the Constitution, will surely suffer if voters do not condemn the ANC to the scrapheap of history.

It is instructive to recall what Thabo Mbeki was thinking/fearing as he faced defeat at the hands of the “Zuma tsunami” back in 2007. According to his biographer, Mark Gevisser:

For Mbeki and those around him, the possibility of a Zuma presidency was a scenario far worse than a dream deferred. It would be, in effect, a dream shattered irrevocably, as South Africa turned into yet another post-colonial kleptocracy; another ‘footprint of despair’ in the path of destruction away from the promises of uhuru.” (Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred, 2007, page xli).

The ball is in the court of the voters of South Africa and of those in the ANC who cannot stomach the perfidious behaviour of its current leadership.

Paul Hoffman SC is a director of Accountability Now