ANC Secretary-general Ace Magashule has warned newly appointed ministers and their deputies against expecting factional support from within the party should they be sacked by President Cyril Ramaphosa over incompetence.
Magashule was on Tuesday delivering the outcomes of the party’s national executive committee (NEC) lekgotla held from Saturday to Monday, where the ANC, alliance partners and state deployees discussed the party’s programme for the next five years.
He said his office had thrown its weight behind Ramaphosa’s planned monitoring of the performance of members of the national executive, who were tasked with political oversight on the implementation of the ANC’s policies.
“According to the president, people are going to sign performance agreements and these performance agreements, unlike in the past, there is going to be rigorous monitoring and evaluation and there will be scoring,” Magashule said.
He said ANC leaders would have
to desist from expecting to be backed by factions when they were exposed to be incompetent and fired from their posts.
“Ministers will be given tasks and deputy ministers and if you don’t perform you cannot blame us.
“You will know that you have failed and therefore we cannot have factions, battles and infighting when one is actually removed.
“One will be removed because one has actually failed,” Magashule said.
He said the lekgotla had resolved that oversight be strengthened at all levels and spheres of government as part of promoting and entrenching good governance.
“The government must be at the forefront of campaigning against crime and for an ethically conscious society against rent-seeking and greed, promoting solidarity and the values of the Constitution in the public and private sector, and in word and deed,” he said.
Magashule dismissed the revolt against the ANC integrity commission, including calls for its disbandment, following unhappiness by some of the tainted ANC leaders who accused it of targeting them.
Several ANC leaders who were implicated in allegations of wrongdoing were last week called to appear before the commission.
These included Deputy President David Mabuza, who has since been cleared by the commission.
Among other leaders summoned were Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association president Kebby Maphatsoe, who accused the commission of factionalism, former environmental affairs minister Nomvula Mokonyane and former home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba, who had both declined their seats in the National Assembly.
Magashule, however, slammed the commission for initially making findings against ANC leaders without hearing from them, which he said prejudiced them. “You cannot judge a person before you call a person and you hear him. Those are rules of natural justice. We stick to it and we are not going to waiver there.
“You cannot accuse me and you don’t even call me, because other people were called,” he said.
The SACP in KwaZulu-Natal said the commission would never be
effective if party leaders lacked
courage to decisively implement its recommendations.
KZN SACP secretary Themba Mthembu said the ANC’s Nasrec conference had done a great job in recommending the commission, but that
the NEC lacked the courage to implement the recommendation against some of its leaders.