George Matlala and Moffet Mofokeng
ANC Secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has thrown down the gauntlet to President Jacob Zuma, warning that the ruling party should act on allegations of corruption against its leaders as they were causing “huge damage (to) the image of the ANC”.
The Sunday Independent has seen a document in which Mantashe called on the party to stop dismissing allegations of graft against its leaders and instead find a way of dealing with them in a way that would portray the ANC as intolerant of corruption.
Mantashe said in the nine-page document, titled Framework for the July 2011 Lekgotla, that the ruling party’s election research shows that people, even the ANC’s staunchest supporters, are complaining that the party is soft on corruption.
“The many high profile cases and allegations against our comrades are not helpful. We can be dismissive of them but the damage on the ANC image is huge,” he said.
Mantashe presented the document to guide discussions at the party’s national executive committee (NEC) Legotla, which will conclude its business today. All discussion documents, including Mantashe’s scathing report, were discussed well into last night.
Cosatu, the SACP and the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) were also invited to the lekgotla. Mantashe said corruption was used as the main weapon for enemies to attack the ANC and some in Cosatu and the SACP.
The ANC was seen in public to have failed to deal with corruption, Mantashe said. “One issue that consistently cropped up in the elections research, even among our staunchest supporters, is that the ANC is soft on corruption and looks after their own… This requires a system for processing such allegations that will send a message of an ANC that is intolerant of corruption,” he said.
Mantashe’s statements follow two damning reports by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela in which she found National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele and Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde guilty of maladministration relating to police tenders worth R1.78 billion.
Madonsela challenged Zuma to take action against Mahlangu-Nkabinde and Cele after she found that their behaviour was improper and unlawful in two lease deals involving enigmatic businessman Roux Shabangu.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and opposition parties have called on Cele and Nkabinde to resign, putting renewed pressure on Zuma to take action against the two senior ANC leaders.
Cosatu also charged that Zuma also had to take action against State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele for “sleeping on duty and failing to be aware that his wife (Cheryl) was involved in the smuggling of drugs”.
But several ANC leaders told The Sunday Independent that it would not be easy for Zuma to deal with senior ANC leaders, in particular Cele, given the polarised environment that the party’s succession debate has created.
Cele was fingered in a covert intelligence report by suspended crime intelligence head Richard Mdluli alleging that he was one of the senior leaders in a plot to oust Zuma.
The report, first published by The Sunday Independent, was allegedly handed to Zuma.
Cele and Mahlangu-Nkabinde joined a growing list of senior ANC members engulfed in allegations of impropriety – which already comprises Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka, ANC chairman in the Northern Cape John Block and ANC chairman in Nelson Mandela Bay Nceba Faku.
Cosatu has made it a condition that Zuma will only get its support for a second term if he acts on the allegations of corruption levelled against some of the senior ANC leaders.
But Zuma would have to tread carefully when dealing with graft allegations because of the party power struggles leading to the elective conference next year – a situation that might see him being lenient on some leaders.
Several ANC leaders told The Sunday Independent that Zuma would be cautious in dealing with Cele because the latter wielded power in KwaZulu-Natal, a base the president desperately needs in order to retain power in 2012.
Zuma, according to an ANC leader who spoke on condition of anonymity, would rather sanction Cele instead of dismissing him.
This will be a strategy to ensure that he does not create victims in the run-up to the Mangaung elective conference.
“I don’t think he will act on Cele. He will be mindful of the political ramifications,” the leader said.
“The manner of action will not be a removal but a strong rebuke or sanction,” the leader added.
But the leader indicated that Zuma might be inclined to take strong action against Shiceka.
“Sicelo has become an embarrassment. He is likely to be removed, but it will be done in a dignified manner so that it doesn’t reflect negatively on the ANC,” the leader added.
The ANC NEC decided on Thursday to defer to August its regular meeting “where ANC politics will be discussed” and have the four-day lekgotla in its place.
“We want to focus purely on governance,” an ANC NEC member said. The leader said the fate of Cele, Shiceka and Mahlangu-Nkabinde, the outcome of the ANC Youth League congress, the Cosatu central committee meeting and the upcoming provincial conferences would be discussed at the August NEC meeting.
The ANC has a scheduled NEC meeting for September.
On Friday, Mantashe told reporters that delegates – who consisted of the 80-member ANC NEC, ministers, top government officials and leaders of Cosatu, Sanco, the SACP – received reports on education, local government, the New Growth Path, health, rural development, the public service, crime and corruption.
Another NEC member said Zuma, in his political report, gave an update of how the AU was dealing with the Libyan crisis, which has come to haunt the president since the UN passed a resolution to impose a no-fly zone on Tripoli, and called on NEC members to be disciplined in the same way former leaders of the party like Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo were.
Zuma is also facing pressures on the economic front, where Cosatu and the ANCYL are pushing him to change the country’s macroeconomic policy.
Cosatu is unhappy with Zuma’s weak leadership and is arguing that he was slow in addressing unemployment and poverty. So critical is Vavi of Zuma’s administration that he is seen as agitating for his removal. But Vavi has maintained on several occasions that he criticises Zuma because he wants him to succeed.
The ANCYL is equally unhappy with Zuma and wants him to commit to nationalisation of mines and land expropriation without compensation – which form the pillar of their 2012 programme – to get support. The youth league is believed to be considering Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to replace Zuma while Cosatu has been divided by the succession debate in the ANC.