Lamola calls for policy conference to strengthen controversial step-aside rule

Justice Minister Ronald Lamola calls for a strengthening of the step-aside rule.Image: Werner Beukes/SAPA

Justice Minister Ronald Lamola calls for a strengthening of the step-aside rule.Image: Werner Beukes/SAPA

Published Jul 29, 2022

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Justice Minister Ronald Lamola has called on the ANC National Policy Conference to strengthen and refine the party’s controversial step-aside rule.

The step-aside rule has divided many in the ruling party, with some saying the rule applies to certain members of the ANC and not to others. It has been seen by many as a tool to purge some members of the party.

The rule stipulated that criminally charged members of the ANC should step aside until they are cleared.

Lamola spoke to The Star outside the plenary hall at Nasrec where the ANC is having its three day policy conference.

Lamola said while the step-aside rule had divided the ruling party, it was a policy of the ANC. He said the party now had an opportunity of refining the policy.

“It is a rule that came out of the last national conference at Nasrec. We have developed guidelines and implemented it. There has been trial and error and there have been processes to develop it so it’s consistent and we now have a precedence,” Lamola said.

He wished for the conference to respond to the challenges that South Africa was facing. This includes the high cost of living, unemployment and matters around land redistribution.

“South Africans have much expectations for us to respond to the high cost of living and the lawlessness that’s creeping in. There are a lot of challenges they are facing and people expect each and every delegate, in their own heart, to (address this at) the conference,” Lamola said.

Commenting on the unhappiness in the ANC about the manner in which former president Jacob Zuma was arrested last year and the order of the Constitutional Court for Zuma to be arrested, Lamola said: “There is no one who celebrated the arrest of the former president.

“But the rule of law is the rule of law and we are in a constitutional democracy and all of us have to respect the court’s rulings,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lamola said he would accept nomination at this year’s elective congress at the end of the year should he be nominated for any position. There was speculation that he would be running for the deputy president position.

Lamola called for a generational mix in leadership and said young people in the ANC had much to offer.

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