ANC body asked Zuma to quit

When ANC veteran Cheryl Carolus told journalists earlier in 2017 that the party’s integrity commission had made a finding against President Jacob Zuma and had asked him to resign, secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said she was “imagining” that this had happened.

However, City Press on Sunday reported that it had obtained the commission’s report, which showed that its members had, in fact, asked Zuma to resign but that he had declined.

The newspaper reported that Zuma had refused to resign because he said this would allow western governments to capture the party and betray the revolution.

Former president Thabo Mbeki was asked to resign by a structure of the ANC — the national executive committee — and he complied in 2008.

The integrity commission is made up of ANC stalwarts Andrew Mlangeni, who chairs it, Frene Ginwala, Nelson Diale, Gertrude Shope, Rashida Abdullah, Mendi Msimang, Sophie de Bruyn, Jethro Ndlovu, Dennis Goldberg, Lindelwe Mabandla and Nokukhanya Jele. The late Ahmed Kathrada was also a member.

It was established following the ANC’s Mangaung conference in 2012, where delegates resolved that “more urgent steps should be taken to protect the image of the organisation and enhance its standing in society by ensuring, among others, that urgent action is taken to deal with public officials, leaders and members of the ANC who face damaging allegations of improper conduct. The ANC can no longer allow prolonged processes that damage its integrity.”

At a March 2013 meeting of the national executive committee, the integrity commission was established and guidelines for its work were approved.

City Press quoted from the committee’s six-page report on its dealings with Zuma. The report was dated May 21 2017 and signed by Mlangeni.

“The president stated emphatically that he would not resign. He believed that to do so would be a betrayal of our people and of our revolution,” the newspaper reported .

In April, Carolus said at a news conference that the ANC’s integrity committee had made a finding against Zuma in December 2016. The next day, when

Mantashe was asked about the committee’s report, he said: “The reality of the matter is [that] there is no such report .... She’s imagining that report, it’s not there”.

On Sunday, ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa reiterated what Mantashe said — there was no such report. “The president has never appeared before the integrity committee, so how can it just have a report?”

Kodwa confirmed that Zuma had met the integrity commission, but a meeting was “something else”, not an attempt to discipline him.

In 2015, following the ANC’s national general council, the party resolved that the commission be given more teeth and that its decisions were binding. It was decided that a report by the commission was final and was not a recommendation.

The commission could also decide which matters should be probed and it does not have to wait for someone to lay an official complaint to start a probe.

One of the integrity commission’s notable investigations was the one that found that former Western Cape ANC chairman Marius Fransman had brought the party into disrepute, should face the national disciplinary committee and not stand for any position for two years.

Fransman tried to challenge the integrity committee and Mantashe in the high court, but this fell flat.

The national disciplinary committee suspended Fransman for five years.

At last week’s national policy conference delegates resolved to make the integrity commission a constitutional structure of the ANC.