The African National Congress (ANC) top six will soon meet with the party’s Integrity Commission in order to support the commission take decisive action against corrupt party members.
In the past, the commission couldn’t take decisions on its own but had to rely on the NEC for its recommendations on members to be endorsed.
On Monday, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa told a virtual media briefing on the outcomes of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting over the past weekend, that they want the commission to be quick in dealing with corrupt ANC members.
“Cadres of the ANC who are reported to be involved in corrupt and other serious criminal practices must go to the integrity commission – and explain themselves. Those who don’t give an unacceptable explanation may be suspended, the NEC also decided that cadres in the ANC who are convicted with corruption or other serious crimes, must resign from leadership positions.”
It was a clear message to all ANC members, from the party’s president. Some of the resolutions taken at the ANC National Executive Committee meeting, held over the past weekend elaborated in the video below:
Powers of the Integrity Commission
Corruption will receive more attention and all those who are found to have broken the law will no longer be able to use the ANC as a hiding place.
But political analyst, Professor Somadoda Fikeni, says the ANC has no choice but to grant its Integrity Commission more powers if the public is to take the party’s fight against corruption seriously.
“For the ANC to salvage its reputation on the issue of corruption, they ought to have an internal mechanism such as the Integrity Commission working effectively and more so because the problem right now is that when it comes back into the NEC, it’s many people who sit there but they are also implicated. So, if they give that power, to the Integrity Commission, it will help them to say we do have our in-built mechanism,” says political analyst Somadoda Fikeni.
Ramaphosa’s leadership
On the other hand, ANC Head of Presidency, Sibongile Besani, has spoken out against those who continue to say president Cyril Ramaphosa is a weak leader. That view was expressed by former party president Jacob Zuma in his letter published just hours before the start of the NEC meeting on Friday.
Besani says that is just not true. “There has been a myth here about a weak president – a president who is very systematic who believes in processing issues and I think during the pandemic, we have seen how meticulous president Cyril Ramaphosa is – so his stewardship is quite meticulous, ” says ANC head of presidency Sibongile Besani.
Meanwhile, ANC Treasurer-General Paul Mashatile conceded that the party’s Integrity Commission would only add value to the fight against corruption if it is granted more powers.
