Resignation will not clean up ANC’s image

PARLIAMENTARY Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula’s resignation has been welcomed by all quarters as the right decision.

Even by her own party, the ANC. Mapisa-Nqakula is accused of receiving more than R2.3 million in kickbacks from a defence contractor during her tenure as defence minister.

Her resignation as National Assembly Speaker and MP on Wednesday followed weeks of speculation on her future, amid threats of arrest by the National Prosecuting Authority’s Investigating Directorate, and mounting calls from opposition parties for her to step down.

She finally handed herself over at the Lyttelton police station in Tshwane and got her day in court yesterday.

Choosing to take the moral high ground, Mapisa-Nqakula however insisted that her resignation was by no means an admission of guilt.

“I have made this decision in order to uphold the integrity and sanctity of our parliament ... representing the people of South Africa as a whole,” she said in her resignation letter.

“Given the seriousness of the much-publicised allegations against me, I cannot continue in this role … as a country’s chief lawmaker … ”

The ANC applauded the decision, saying Mapisa-Nqakula had led by example by resigning instead of waiting to be told to step aside once she is charged. She had done so in order to protect the image of the party.

Unfortunately, it’s all too little, too late. One resignation will do little to fix the optics of a ruling party that has become synonymous with endemic corruption reaching all the way to the president’s office.

For there are those who strongly believe Cyril Ramaphosa ought to have stepped aside following the Phala Phala scandal.

No, the ANC has a long way to go to prove to South Africans that they are committed to cleaning house.

It has been nearly two years since Justice Raymond Zondo handed the sixth and final state capture commission report to the president.

The evidence gathered implicated 1 438 persons. However, despite assurances by Ramaphosa that there would be more arrests, none have been made to date. Even reports this week that arrests were “imminent” were dismissed as “fake news” by the National Director of Public Prosecutions.

Time has unfortunately run out for the ANC. They go into the May 29 election bearing the stigma of a corrupt party, and a party that is unable to stop corruption in its ranks.