Cape Town - The African National Congress on Sunday warned members to beware of "creating the false impression that the ANC as an organisation identifies with, or approve of, the misdemeanors of which any member or leader may be accused".
In a statement issued after the ANC's three-day national executive committee (NEC) meeting in Cape Town, secretary general Ace Magashule said the NEC recommitted itself to continue campaigning to restore the integrity and dignity of the state and of the ANC as an organisation, and further that the fight against all manifestations of corruption and state capture should be intensified.
"The NEC appreciates that, in the context of this campaign, some members and leaders of the movement may find themselves called to account by law-enforcement agencies, the legislatures, and the Judicial Commission of Inquiry dealing with the matter of state of capture.
"The ANC wishes to reiterate its principled approach that persons so implicated, should be presumed innocent until and unless proven otherwise," he said.
Individual members of the ANC and society had the right to express their sympathy and solidarity with the affected persons in their individual capacity, but not through any structures of the movement, including the ANC leagues and the MKMVA.
"Members involved in such actions are discouraged from displaying ANC’s paraphernalia and thus creating the false impression that the ANC as organisation identifies with, or approve of, the misdemeanors of which any member or leader may be accused.
"In welcoming the concerted efforts of the executive led by the president, as well as the legislatures, to put the sad chapter of systemic corruption and state capture behind us, we wish to emphasize that cadres of the movement, wherever they may be deployed, should see it as their responsibility to co-operate with these efforts; and not to seek to obstruct legitimate actions to eliminate these scourges."
The NEC had further directed the national working committee (NWC) to finalise terms of reference as well as setting up the Integrity commission and to report to the next NEC meeting for finality, he said.
Turning to discipline and the conduct of ANC caucuses, Magashule said the NEC resolved, as part of the implementation of the resolutions of the 54th national conference, to conduct a review of the conference itself and "deal decisively with remnants of divisions in a systematic manner".
"This must include the dismantling of pre-conference lobby groups and engaging all our structures around unity of purpose and action. All ANC caucuses across legislatures are expected to submit to greater cohesion and maximum discipline, including asserting and defending the hegemony of the ANC," he said.
The NEC had directed all its structures to act decisively against instances that openly undermined the unity of the movement and "immediately whip into line deployed cadres who openly advanced divisive counter-revolutionary agendas to overthrow ANC administrations by aligning themselves with frivolous motions of no confidence from the opposition against fellow ANC deployees".
"The ANC NEC through its full time elections machinery has observed that divisive instances undermine public confidence and project the ANC as a movement that is at war with itself. The ANC has an open door policy and sufficient platforms to allow all of its cadres to ventilate and find common ground," Magashule said.