Sli Nyathikazi and Mphathi Nxumalo
Durban - IN THE latest round of drama brought about by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into allegations of State Capture, a group of some high profile ANC cadres have called for the party’s national executive committee to be disbanded, citing factional battles and a deepening leadership crisis in the ANC.
The collective of “ordinary” ANC members comprising former MK and military vets have lambasted the poor handling of the Zondo Commission of Inquiry and what they see as the “ever deepening leadership crisis within the ANC”.
Retired SANDF veteran and former uMkhonto weSizwe veteran, General Moamela Motau, issued a statement on behalf of the group of cadres, saying: “A non-factional task team needs to replace the NEC immediately because that ANC leadership has failed the country dismally.
He lambasted the poor handling of the Zondo Commission into State Capture as “overzealousness to root out corruption that is having unintended consequences of stripping our country naked”.
“A responsible leadership should have approached that session (Zondo Commission) differently. It could have been prudent to hold the meetings in camera, for example. This would not have been an attempt at burying the truth but rather an approach that takes into serious cognisance the sensitivity of matters of intelligence that have an impact on state security,” Motau said.
The country and the ANC specifically are engulfed by an ever deepening leadership crisis, he said.
“In the recent past, our country has experienced and is still experiencing the passiveness of, if not dereliction, by the ANC Top 6, NEC, PECs and RECs. Coupled with this is the absence of an alliance-driven intervention while pre-occupation with factionalistic leadership, and succession bargaining behind the scenes abound at the expense of self-renewal, repositioning and re-engineering of the ANC.
“Internal party democracy has not been spared as there are continued efforts to suppress and marginalise the voices for economic freedom as championed by the ANC Youth League and Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA), among others,” he explained.
Analysts agreed with some of the sentiments expressed in the letter.
Political analyst Professor Boitumelo Senokoane said: “My view on the subject is that there has to be a balance in approach. The exposure of corruption within SSA should be left to the Executive of the State and a separate process be dedicated to deal with the SSA corruption related. There should be private prosecution. State Security must be protected by all means though corruption should be punishable.”
University of Zululand Professor Sipho Seepe said the letter raised a number of pertinent issues. He said the ANC firstly, was on auto-pilot and was leaderless and did not have a vision.
“Second, and perhaps as a result of a lack of vision it is caught in fighting factional battles instead of leading. Three, the factional battles have led to a stage of winning by any means necessary with no regard to the cost to the country and its security. Four, it thus comes as no surprise that in this battle some would throw out the rule book out of the window in terms of how the security services function,” he said.
Seepe then said that the people who went in front of the Zondo Commission were incompetent and not qualified in matters of security. Due to the lack of expertise these people peddled poorly informed opinions and lies.
He argued a case made that the chair of the commission, deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo was ill equipped to hear and appreciate the allegations that are being made. Seepe then moved on to say that there were ways and certain processes that some of the matters could be handled.
“Of course all the above concerns means nothing for a country that is being reduced to a banana republic. Most important is the fact that veterans are not opposed to the rooting out of corruption, they suggest that these must be handled in a responsible way,” Seepe said.
He said the behaviour of some of the people who were at the commission was seditious if it proved that their behaviour posed a threat to the country.
The Commission's spokesperson, Reverend Mbuyiselo Stemela said the Commission would no longer be commenting on former president Zuma and the continued attacks on the integrity of its Chairperson.
The Commission is expected to announce on the 15th of February what further action it will take with regard to Zuma’s conduct should he carry out his decision not to appear on said date and thus act in breach and in contempt of the order of the Constitutional Court.
The Daily News tried to get comment from ANC spokesperson, but no comment was forthcoming by the time of publication.
Daily News