DA wants NPA to charge ANC as a ‘criminal syndicate’ over graft

The DA has asked the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) head advocate Shamila Bahoti to criminally charge the governing ANC with fraud‚ corruption‚ money laundering and racketeering as per the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca).

Party leader Mmusi Maimane on Wednesday announced the decision‚ saying the party believed that under the stewardship of an “independent and uncompromised” Batohi there would “finally” be accountability.

“The provisions of Poca are clear. The ANC qualifies as an ‘enterprise’ as per the act’s definition‚ and the evidence at hand and actions taken by the ANC‚ in our view‚ satisfies the requirements of ‘racketeering’ and ‘unlawful activity’ as defined in Poca.

“There exists a clear cut criminal case for the ANC to answer to‚ the organisation must be fined heavily and individual members found guilty must be locked away behind bars‚” Maimane said.

Maimane said the ANC must account for its “systematic and calculated corruption‚ theft and looting of public money” over the past 20 years.

He said since the first revelations of “mass-scale ANC corruption” as far back as January 2001 when details of the infamous arms deal came to light‚ the ANC as an organisation had for almost 20 years acted as a collective criminal syndicate‚ operating to enrich itself‚ its members‚ and its “dirty business connections“.

“With each passing year in political office‚ the ANC has become more and more brazen in its efforts to perpetuate its system of corruption and patronage that involves and implicates every lever of the state‚” he added.

In a letter to Batohi‚ Maimane said inquiries into state capture‚ Sars‚ the PIC and the NPA revealed theft and corruption on a breathtaking scale. He said recent revelations of the highpanel report of the State Security Agency further proved that the ANC was a criminal syndicate.

“Then we have the VBS (bank) collapse and its collateral damage and the revelations regarding Bosasa. All this information put together in its logical sequence points to a criminal enterprise being conducted with state resources‚” Maimane said in the letter.

Individual members found guilty must be locked away behind bars