The ANC has a history of rapping corrupt members over the knuckles instead of severely disciplining them, which begs the question: will its integrity commission bring any change to the party? The public’s trust in the ANC appears to have been eroded and, as political analyst Judith February tells broadcaster Tim Modise, in his weekly webinar, South Africans have reached the end of their tether in believing the ANC can deal with corruption. The appointment of former mayor of Ethekwini, Zandile Gumede, to the KwaZulu-Natal legislature was another blow to the ANC’s so-called efforts to fight looting. Gumede is facing charges of corruption for tender fraud amounting to R208m. While her appointment was set aside by the ANC, February argues that is not enough and members who are criminally charged should be expelled. – Bernice Maune
Tim Modise: What do you make of this talk coming out of the ANC, saying that those who are alleged to be corrupt will be asked to step aside and take leave of absence? Those are the words that are being used. Why are they not asked to resign or be dismissed?
Judith February: We shouldn’t be having this conversation. It is extraordinary that you have to have a conversation about whether somebody is criminally charged and they don’t believe that there is some ethical duty on them to the country, the people they represent, to, in fact, step aside.
There is a legal issue with regard to the notion of stepping aside and given the rules around an elected representative, whether it’s local, provincial or national level in parliament… whether you know, that is allowed. And so I suspect that that’s going to be a thorn in the flesh for the ANC. But there is a way in which I think they can get around that is to simply say that people who are criminally charged should be expelled from the party. If they are found later to be innocent, then they can reapply to be part of the ANC. There is so much evidence in the public domain.
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Also, I think the average South African citizen has probably reached the end of it…. What that would mean is the ANC would have to then go through its internal disciplinary processes. Now, of course, a secretary-general is very important in terms of that process. And so what do you have when you have somebody driving that process who himself has allegations of corruption, serious issue allegations against him? That creates a real problem.
People who are criminally charged should be expelled from the party
And then, of course, the issues around the integrity committee of the ANC and how well or how poorly that functions. I suspect that the ANC will have to do some internal thinking about how the stepping aside issues squares with the parliamentary rules and what the Constitution says, and then try to come to some other arrangement in terms of its internal disciplinary processes and workings.
Watch the full webinar below with broadcaster Tim Modise and political analysts Prof Tinyiko Maluleke, Judith February and Daniel Silke.
