Johannesburg - Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared that the ANC is not for sale and that those who seek to capture the party and the state won’t be allowed to do so.
Ramaphosa was addressing a middle-class constituency at a soul-searching session of professionals in Sandton, aimed at jacking up the ruling party’s political fortunes with the middle-class before the municipal elections.
Ramaphosa told the audience that the party “wanted their love back” and gave the assurance that the ANC was dealing with the recent allegations of state capture by the powerful Gupta family.
“Those who might want to capture it (ANC) and influence it to advance their personal interest have come to the wrong place,” he said. “In a way, it is good that we are dealing with this matter now. There is always a risk for states to be captured, not only in South Africa.”
His comments came in the wake of allegations by several ANC members, including Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas, revealing that they were offered cabinet posts by the Guptas. The ANC national executive committee (NEC) resolved to investigate the claims through the office of its secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, and to make recommendations.
On Wednesday, Ramaphosa said the NEC had decided to move away from rumours and headlines and set up a structure to address the issue of corporate capture. The structure had already started work.
“This is going to be a defining moment when we deal with this matter once and for all. All we ask is that we should be given time and space to deal with this matter.”
Ramaphosa said the Gupta family were not the only ones who were trying to capture the state.
Meanwhile the Banking Association said on Wednesday that it shared the NEC’s confidence in Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan at this critical economic and fiscal juncture.
Managing director Cas Coovadia said, however, that as patriotic corporate citizenry, they remained deeply concerned and disturbed about the worrisome trend of illegitimate influence in the state.
Coovadia said state capture was a euphemism for “blatant corruption and is not in keeping with the central tenets of our constitutional democracy”.
The Star