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ANC top officials to meet with Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini on Sunday

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Top African National Congress  (ANC) officials will meet with convicted ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini on Sunday. After her sentencing at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday, president Cyril Ramaphosa and his deputy David Mabuza will meet to decide Dlamini’s fate.

She was sent to four years in jail with an option of a R200 000 fine, half of which was suspended. Currently, the ANC has a standing resolution that all members who are facing criminal charges have to step aside and those convicted must resign but Dlamini has neither stepped down nor resigned since her conviction on perjury.

The unity and renewal of the ANC have been the hallmark of Ramaphosa’s leadership. One much talked about resolution adopted under his leadership is the step-aside rule, which instructs members who are facing criminal charges to step-down to help protect the integrity of the ANC.

With some leaders having stepped down and others suspended for refusing, Ramaphosa his effort to renew the ANC is slowly but surely being embraced by the party’s rank and file membership.

“We are involved in a process of renewing and repositioning the party and dealing with the factions that exist in the party and we are moving forward on the renewal front and renewal is the order of the day in the ANC. Of course, there will be cleavages of resistance and cleavages of wanting to go back but we are moving ahead and we will succeed. The cohort of people in the ANC of people who want to see renewal is so huge and that’s what I am relying on and that is why I say there are clear signs of success ahead,” says Ramaphosa.

Former Social Development Minister, Bathabile Dlamini found guilty of perjury 

Step aside rule

The casualties of the step-aside rule are many and the list is becoming longer. And after a marathon trial, ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini is guilty as charged and is now sentenced. Her fate is now in the hands of the ANC with the party’s top brass led by Ramaphosa meeting to discuss her future.

“We are studying the judgment this matter was raised at the last NEC if you recall two weeks ago but the decision was that the officials of the ANC must deal with the matter. We took a decision that we will call comrade Bathabile. We are meeting on Monday, normally we meet at 10 on Mondays, we will meet her as well,” says Paul Mashatile, ANC Treasurer General and Acting Secretary-General.

Some ANC leaders who are facing serious charges have since stepped down in keeping with the step-aside rule with the latest being the newly elected Mpumalanga Treasurer Mandla Msibi who’s facing a double murder charge and attempted murder. Those who refused to step down like Secretary-General Ace Magashule have since been suspended.

Mashatile has admitted that their step-aside rule was not clear on the seriousness of cases that warrant members who are facing criminal charges in courts to step down.

“The resolution of the ANC did not include all crimes not necessarily because we did not think they are not serious crimes but the understanding was that serious crime will be in line with the statutes are saying we will be guided by that. But you are quite right the resolution was not exhaustive but in the guide there are statutes and to the extent that the statutes of the country regard a particular crime as serious that will be our position as well,” says Mashatile.

Bathabile Dlamini says she will step aside if asked to do so 

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