Johannesburg - As Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng receives the lists of members for the National Assembly from the Electoral Commission of SA on Wednesday, pressure increased on President Cyril Ramaphosa to drop rogue ministers when he puts together a new cabinet.
The National Assembly is meeting for the first time in a new parliamentary term next week to elect Ramaphosa as president.
On Tuesday, it emerged that a group of ANC veterans have warned Ramaphosa that the ANC would continue to decline and fail in its renewal project if it does not identify and boot out those it describes as “counter-revolutionary” for having corrupted the state.
In a document defined as the first in a series that seeks to address “counter revolution, state capture and corruption in South Africa”, the stalwarts who include ANC Veterans League president Snuki Zikala, Wally Serote, Thami Ntenteni and Aziz Pahad said the ANC was still on the cusp of being taken over by rouge characters.
The veterans - who also include former Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Dr Fazel Randera - said while enemies of the ANC and its alliance used to be identified as outside forces, they have now been entrenched internally through deployment.
“In the current phase of the revolution, counter-revolution has primarily manifested itself through the deployment of enemies of the ANC and what it stands for. Draped in the very garments of the ANC, these ‘cadres’ have been able to deceive the ANC and the people that they represent a more radical tendency within the ANC,” the veterans said.
Several ANC stalwarts openly rejected the party’s list of candidates for the National Assembly due to the inclusion of leaders who were implicated in state capture allegations.
The group accused what it called a populist grouping within the ANC of pushing the party towards what it said would eventually result in the “defeat of national democratic revolution”.
“The first is that the policies of the ANC must be distorted and veered away from its objectives, either through populist stances or through downright revolutionary adventurism.
“Secondly, the enemies of the revolution would also ensure that they form part of the cohort of deployees in state institutions,” the veterans said.
They singled out former SA Revenue Service boss Tom Moyane as an example, accusing him of plotting the collapse of effective governance at Sars. Moyane could not be reached for comment and did not reply to text messages.
The group said the ANC has so far failed to implement progressive resolutions of its national conference on the renewal of the party, including selection of only those capable and with integrity for office and developing leaders “schooled in our values and policies”.
“So far, the ANC has not correctly and seriously engaged either of these two vitally important matters,” the veterans said. ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe had not responded by the time of going to print.
Meanwhile, Cosatu has called on Ramaphosa not to betray the poor as he takes over to serve his full term, saying the party was retained to power mainly by the poor.
The federation was responding to the latest unemployment figures released on Tuesday, which went up to 27.6%. “President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC have been indulged by the voters, in particular, the poor and the working class, with one last chance.
“The new incoming sixth administration needs to realise that the capitalist system has now reached its limits,” Cosatu said.