SA not that corrupt: Mthethwa

ANC NEC member Nathi Mthethwa addresses the media on the sidelines of the party's NGC. Picture: @MyANC/Twitter

ANC NEC member Nathi Mthethwa addresses the media on the sidelines of the party's NGC. Picture: @MyANC/Twitter

Published Oct 10, 2015

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Johannesburg – The magnitude of corruption and its implications in South Africa are generally overstated, ANC national executive committee member Nathi Mthethwa said on Saturday.

Addressing journalists at the African National Congress’s national general council (NGC) in Midrand, Johannesburg, Mthethwa said the ANC-led government had taken many measures to counter graft.

“You can imagine (if) there was R30 billion stolen or looted. It means we have many billionaires running around. What we are referring to is, among others, fruitless expenditure which doesn’t necessarily mean there is corruption. Sometimes it is maladministration by the state and so forth,” said Mthethwa.

“That narrative - that there is R30 billion gone to corruption with the ANC government - is not correct. There is expenditure which goes wrong in government - under expenditure and over expenditure. In some instances where there are elements of corrupt practices, such have been dealt with in government. Let’s not put it in a way which is not correct.”

Independent researchers have found that South Africa loses on average R30 billion to corruption annually.

Mthethwa was addressing media on his “balance of forces” report which he presented to the NGC.

He said delegates expressed “frustration” over the negativity brought to the party’s image by senior party officials who had been accused of corruption but remained in their jobs.

“All of us are innocent until proven otherwise; that is precisely the point which has made it difficult for the [ANC] ethics committee to do its job. It has been that if you say you are stepping aside then it means you are actually admitting [guilt]. The sentiment of conference is that whether or not you are guilty, allow the process to take its course.

“The direction, as I see it going forward, one of the two has to suffer. What seems to be in the line of suffering is the innocent until proven guilty principle. That was the sentiment yesterday; it may change,” Mthethwa said.

The ANC’s fourth NGC ends on Sunday.

African News Agency

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