African National Congress (ANC) Treasurer-General, Dr. Gwen Ramokgopa says corruption has eroded society’s trust in the ruling party.
She made the comments on Morning Live this morning, where she unpacked the ANC’s manifesto, which was launched by party President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Moses Mabhida stadium in KwaZulu-Natal last month.
Ramokgopa says that the party has in the past taken very hard decisions by implementing its resolution on the step-aside rule.
She says, “We have taken painful decisions including terminating the term of one of our Presidents before time and putting aside even one of our SGs on the step aside policy and finally expelling. This is part of the renewal programme. Corruption is inherent in any system and we have good measures in place including working with the private sector and civil society to have a national anti-Corruption Council established.”
ANC Candidate list
Ramokgopa says ANC members who are alleged to be involved in corrupt activities, will not make it onto the party’s candidate list.
The party’s integrity Commission recommended that those implicated in graft should be barred from standing for public office. This comes as over 90 ANC members were implicated in the State Capture Commission.
She says, “Our guidelines are very clear that those who do not qualify and those who have been found guilty as stipulated and those who have had to step aside will not qualify to be on our lists. We are guided by the Integrity Commission and the Electoral Committee is helping us to effect that. You must remember that we have an Independent Electoral Committee which is chaired by Kgalema Motlanthe that is also assisting the organization with that part of it as well.”
MK Party
Ramokgopa has admitted that the formation of the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party has been of some concern.
In December last year, former ANC President Jacob Zuma announced that he would endorse the MK party in the upcoming election and would no longer campaign for the ruling party.
This move saw Zuma’s suspension from the ANC early this year.
She says the formation of the MK party also caused a lot of confusion for ANC members.
Ramokgopa says, “We must acknowledge that the developments of the formation of the MK Party caused a lot of confusion; the MK party is a concern for us. And what at least I found with the engagements, … is that it caused a little bit of confusion as to exactly what it is because the messages were that this we are doing to save the ANC. So we have been clarifying all of that.”
Employment
She also called on the private sector to help the government create employment.
Ramokgopa says the private sector is not doing enough to assist the country create sufficient jobs.
Last week, Statistician-General, Risenga Maluleke announced that the country’s unemployment rate increased to 32.1% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
She added that load shedding remains a major stumbling block for job creation.
“Some of the objective challenges, for instance, the issue of load shedding, has been a difficulty and the government’s responsibility is to look at resolving that. Indeed that is what we have applied our minds on and the issue has really eased but it still needs to be resolved adequately and we are confident that the Ministry will do that.”
VIDEO: Unpacking ANC manifesto with Ramokgopa:
Reporting by Sibahle Motha.
