Use of army craft ‘abuses power’
Pressure on Cyril mounts over trip
The ANC delegation’s using a a military jet to fly to Zimbabwe alongside defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula was “an abuse of power and failure to distinguish between party and state”.
This is according to political analysts who piled pressure on President Cyril Ramaphosa to show his hand in dealing with corruption and abuse of state resources.
The ANC delegation led by secretary-general Ace Magashule visited Harare last week in an SA Airforce jet and allegedly ignored level 2 lockdown regulations, sparking an outcry among citizens about the government’s commitment to deal with abuse of state resources.
The delegation landed back in the country at the Waterkloof Airforce Base in Pretoria on Wednesday and a day later, home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi instructed that an investigation be conducted about the trip.
Ramaphosa demanded a report from Mapisa-Nqakula on Friday, giving her 48 hours to give him a report about the trip. Both the presidency and Mapisa-Nqakula’s office did not respond to Sowetan’s requests for comment on the matter.
Political analyst Mzoxolo Mpolase said the trip was a clear indication of how Ramaphosa was failing to keep his word on dealing with corruption and abuse of state resources.
“It is an abuse of state resources of the highest order. It is an indication of how low this country has gone... What has Ace [Magashule] got to do with government international relations. He had no right being on that plane. The only person who was supposed to be there was Mapisa-Nqakula... They make these rules and they don’t abide by them,” Mpolase said.
He said Ramaphosa has no political will to deal with the “rot that is in the ANC” and that the “short hold that he has on the party is just for mere political survival”.
“This an act of the ANC abusing state resources and violating the lockdown regulations that they have made in government. They’ve got to a point where they don’t understand the difference between the party and state and they are so brazen about it,” Mpolase said.
Lawrence Hamilton, research professor in political theory at the University of the Witwatersrand, said the ANC must take action against all those who did not comply with Covid-19 regulations.
“The ANC is supposed to represent its members. But when it forms a government, that government represents all the people of SA and the South African state. If this trip was a state-sanctioned undertaking, there is nothing wrong with it but if it is not a state-sanctioned trip it is in breach of that important distinction as regards political representation,” Hamilton said.
“This trip doesn’t seem to be an example of corruption, in the normal sense of that word, but it is clear that the manner of the trip and the actions of those involved during and afterwards constitute another example of the ANC ignoring the important distinction between the party and the state.”