Parliament - The first order of business for the new president of South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), Cyril Ramaphosa, should be to get a probe into state capture underway immediately, the SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) said on Monday night.
In a statement, Sanco spokesman Jabu Mahlangu said the probe into the phenomenon of state capture, which refers to the billions of rand of state money illegally going into the pockets of the politically connected, was the "first step of the clean-up towards winning public confidence and restoring the integrity of public institutions".
The civic organisation, an ally of the ANC, but also fierce critics of corrupt leaders, said ANC members, said skilled "cadres" who found themselves outside the fold of the ANC because of "gatekeeping" should be brought back on board
"Their contribution will be required to rebuild South Africa’s economy," Mahlangu said.
He said members of the ANC and its alliance partner should rally behind the new leadership who has the mammoth task of rebuilding the party which took a huge knock when it lost several key municipalities in local government elections last year.
"The challenge facing the new leadership will be how to forge unity and weed out the culture of factionalism and personality cult that had entrenched itself and characterised the outgone NEC [national executive committee]."
Following the outcome of the election for a new top six leadership of the ANC on Monday, a vote for 80 additional members for the NEC are to be held Tuesday.
Mahlangu said these NEC members must be "morally upright and leaders of integrity".