ANC in Catch-22 over graft-implicated leaders — analysts
• The party risks losing the votes that usually come with certain leaders if they are left off the candidate lists
The ANC faces a predicament after its integrity commission said members implicated in corruption must be excluded from standing for public office as the party prepares to hand over its candidate lists for the 2024 national and provincial election to the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) later this week.
“This is an interesting turn of events. The party is in a Catch22 situation because, on the one hand, if you ask those implicated in corruption to step aside, the ANC might not do well in the election as they [the implicated] could tell party structures to not vote for the ANC,” said Prof Ntsikelelo Breakfast, political analyst at Nelson Mandela University.
This follows a report in City Press that the ANC integrity commission, in a recent report to secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, recommended that senior party leaders with questionable integrity be barred from standing for public office.
Those flagged include sport, arts & culture minister Zizi Kodwa, former president Jacob Zuma, former health minister Zweli Mkhize, human settlements, water & sanitation deputy minister David Mahlobo, former North West premier Supra Mahumapelo; and MPs Mosebenzi Zwane, Bongani Bongo and Thabang Makwetla.
The commission is made up of ANC elders and is led by party veteran Rev Frank Chikane.
When contacted for comment, Chikane said: “The commission does not respond to the media and doesn’t discuss its reports in public.”
He referred questions to ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, who said: “The ANC will comment on its list process after the special NEC [national executive committee] meeting scheduled to take place [on Monday].”
On Sunday, Breakfast said some of those implicated represented large constituencies and their stepping down could affect the party at the polls. “Take Zweli Mkhize, for example. He has a large constituency in KwaZulu-Natal. What do you do? Do you risk the party losing the election or do you incorporate them into the candidates list?
“At the same time if you don’t act against them, you are conveying a message, indirectly, to the public, that you don’t take corruption seriously.”
Stellenbosch University professor of political science Amanda Gouws said the ANC was trying to “save face” by recommending that those implicated in corruption be excluded from the list process.
“But this might backfire on them, because people are already talking that if they are not on the list they won’t campaign for the ANC. The party is already facing an uphill battle with the uMkhonto weSizwe party,” she said.
“If the integrity commission says those people must not stand and they allow them to stand, then it’s going [to come across as if] they [the ANC] don’t take corruption seriously.”
When contacted for comment, Zwane, who is transport portfolio committee chair, told Business Day he had no ambitions of going back to parliament, in any case.
“Are we available [to stand for public office], that’s the question that must be asked. But I don’t wish to contradict anybody, especially my own organisation. We were taught to be part of the collective, even if the odds are stacked against you. I remain true to that principle,” Zwane, a former mineral resources minister, said.
“I was cleared by the integrity commission and parliament. If I was asked [whether I’m available to stand, I would have said] it’s not my wish to go back to parliament. I’m OK.
“I wish everybody that is on the list the best of luck. I’ve had my fair share, and I’m OK. You must know when to say I’m OK, thank you. I want to thank the movement and the people of SA [for allowing me to serve them],” said Zwane, who was arrested in September 2022 in connection with alleged fraud and corruption linked to the controversial dairy farm project in Vrede, Free State, involving public funds meant for emerging black farmers, but which were diverted to the Gupta family.
Bongo, a former state security minister, said when contacted for comment: “I have not seen the [commission] report. If it’s presented to me then I can comment.”
Bongo and the other accused are facing 69 counts of fraud, theft, corruption and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act.
The Sunday Times reported in 2022 that the charges related to a farm outside Ermelo in Mpumalanga that was bought for R10.5m and sold to the government a few minutes later for R36m. In a second land deal in Emalahleni, using the same modus operandi, a farm was bought for R15m and sold to the department of human settlements for R37.5m, also allegedly shortly thereafter.