Ramaphosa takes a stand on corruption in letter to ANC members
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President Cyril Ramaphosa took the unprecedented step on Sunday of writing directly to the ANC’s more than a million members promising them that the party will take steps to deal with corruption.
The move indicates how severely stung Ramaphosa has been by latest corruption revelations, which have exposed high-profile ANC members, including people close to him, as so ethically bankrupt they would seek profit from a pandemic in which lives are at risk.
Ramaphosa relies on ANC newsletters to communicate with members, usually through the republication of his formal speeches and presidential letter.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said Ramaphosa’s letter is being distributed to all party members through various networks, social media and the machinery of the party’s department of information and publicity. The letter will also be uploaded onto the ANC’s website and published in its weekly newsletter, ANC Today.
Ramaphosa said ANC members accused of or involved in corruption have to account to the party’s integrity commission immediately or face disciplinary processes, and that those who fail to give an acceptable explanation, or to voluntarily step down while they face disciplinary action, will be summarily suspended.
While ANC internal discipline procedures exist, members are seldom charged for corruption or for bringing the organisation into disrepute.
He said the ANC should also conduct lifestyle audits of all its leaders and public representatives, and develop a clear policy on ANC leaders and their family members doing business with the state. The party leaders should also make regular declarations of financial interests.
SIU investigations
There has been outrage in the country over corruption and with how Ramaphosa — who rose to the presidency on an anticorruption ticket — has been tackling it within his own party and the government.
This comes as the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is probing Covid-19 corruption, especially in the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE).
Possible tender irregularities in the procurement of PPE in Gauteng have already led to the president’s spokesperson Khusela Diko and the province’s health MEC, Bandile Masuku, taking leave of absence pending the outcome of the SIU investigations.
Ramaphosa said in the letter that the anger over corruption is justified.
“Today, the ANC and its leaders stand accused of corruption. The ANC may not stand alone in the dock, but it does stand as accused No 1,” he said.
Corruption in the ANC is rooted in factional politics, which is why the ...
The move indicates how severely stung Ramaphosa has been by latest corruption revelations, which have exposed high-profile ANC members, including people close to him, as so ethically bankrupt they would seek profit from a pandemic in which lives are at risk.
Ramaphosa relies on ANC newsletters to communicate with members, usually through the republication of his formal speeches and presidential letter.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said Ramaphosa’s letter is being distributed to all party members through various networks, social media and the machinery of the party’s department of information and publicity. The letter will also be uploaded onto the ANC’s website and published in its weekly newsletter, ANC Today.
Ramaphosa said ANC members accused of or involved in corruption have to account to the party’s integrity commission immediately or face disciplinary processes, and that those who fail to give an acceptable explanation, or to voluntarily step down while they face disciplinary action, will be summarily suspended.
While ANC internal discipline procedures exist, members are seldom charged for corruption or for bringing the organisation into disrepute.
He said the ANC should also conduct lifestyle audits of all its leaders and public representatives, and develop a clear policy on ANC leaders and their family members doing business with the state. The party leaders should also make regular declarations of financial interests.
SIU investigations
There has been outrage in the country over corruption and with how Ramaphosa — who rose to the presidency on an anticorruption ticket — has been tackling it within his own party and the government.
This comes as the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is probing Covid-19 corruption, especially in the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE).
Possible tender irregularities in the procurement of PPE in Gauteng have already led to the president’s spokesperson Khusela Diko and the province’s health MEC, Bandile Masuku, taking leave of absence pending the outcome of the SIU investigations.
Ramaphosa said in the letter that the anger over corruption is justified.
“Today, the ANC and its leaders stand accused of corruption. The ANC may not stand alone in the dock, but it does stand as accused No 1,” he said.
Corruption in the ANC is rooted in factional politics, which is why the ...
