ANC leaders have licence to plunder

DEAR SIR — The no-consequences culture within the African National Congress (ANC) leadership, outlined by Onkgopotse JJ Tabane, needs to be exposed further (No surprise ruling of highest court, April 4).

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is reported to be trying to tell the ANC leadership to walk the straight and narrow as they increasingly lose credibility. But it is a lost cause. In January 18-24 2008, the Mail & Guardian published its annual Rogues’ Gallery. It contained 28 names of prominent ANC and South African Communist Party leaders in different categories of alleged and committed offences.

Among those was Jesse Duarte; an inquiry found there was “strong suspicion she had covered up a car accident while driving without a licence”. Jackson Mthembu (pictured), as transport and public works MEC in Mpumalanga, bought 10 BMWs for his colleagues on the executive without following protocol, and crashed a state car while driving without a licence. Some on the list had enriched themselves in the Travelgate scandal, and it is not known if they have paid back their ill-gotten gains. There are plenty more skeletons in the ANC’s cupboard.

Each year, the number of corrupted and self-enriched gets larger. They fully expect to “get away with it”. It is the culture of protection. It is accepted practice that some state institution will get them off the hook.

Tony Yengeni, who was on the 2008 list, is still trying to duck out of a later drunk driving charge.

What all these “cheats” will not acknowledge is that they are setting a devastatingly bad example to rankand-file party members and the South African public. Nor do they have a tradition of doing the honourable thing by falling on their swords. Why fall on your sword if you are not doing anything unacceptable to your party?

The truth is that the ANC does not take corruption seriously and there are no consequences. The old saying “never trust a politician” has never been more true. Ron Legg Hillcrest