Magashule slams Bongo announcement
Integrity commission wants ex-minister to step down after arrest
● The ANC’s integrity commission has incurred the ire of party secretary-general Ace Magashule for announcing its recommendation that Bongani Bongo be removed from all positions in the party and parliament.
Magashule slammed the body, led by ANC veteran George Mashamba, for telling the media before the decision was processed by the national executive committee (NEC).
“I don’t know how the integrity commission works. It reports to the national executive committee. But we already see, if it’s true, things in the papers or on social media. It’s uncalled for. It’s not a right thing. The integrity [commission] has to interact with the ANC and not through the media,” Magashule told the Sunday Times yesterday.
The integrity commission met on Thursday and recommended that Bongo, a former state security minister, should step aside as an ANC NEC member and MP after his arrest on corruption charges.
The commission’s decision is expected to intensify divisions within the party.
An element in the party, which believes the action against Bongo is part of a purge, will ask why the commission has not acted against National Assembly speaker Thandi Modise, who faces charges of animal cruelty.
Bongo was charged with attempting to bribe Ntuthuzelo Vanara in 2017. At the time Vanara, an advocate, was the evidence leader in a parliamentary inquiry into state capture at Eskom.
Bongo yesterday referred the Sunday
Times to Magashule.
Mashamba said the commission was unanimous in its decision on Bongo.
“Comrade Bongo should be instructed to step aside with immediate effect … until his name has been cleared of the criminal charges levelled against him.”
Mashamba said the commission had written to Magashule’s office, informing it of the decision.
Magashule said: “Whether it contacted my office or not, what I’m saying is that their reports are not supposed [to be] in the media before they actually reach the ANC.”
Mashamba said he issued a statement on the matter because he had been repeatedly asked for his views by the media.
The integrity commission took the matter further, calling on the NEC to rebuke Bongo for “casting aspersions on other comrades”.
This was after Bongo said he believed public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan had been behind his arrest.
Bongo said he was innocent and that he would co-operate with the law to prove this.
The recommendation by the ANC integrity commission comes as parliament begins to crack down on former cabinet ministers who have been implicated in state capture.
Parliament’s ethics committee has written to Mosebenzi Zwane and Faith Muthambi, asking them to account for their roles in the widespread looting of state coffers.
Bongo, Zwane and Muthambi were among party leaders who were flagged by the integrity commission. The commission said they had questions to answer when the ANC selected its final list of MPs. The flagged list includes Deputy President David Mabuza and ANC national chairman and mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe.
It is understood that parliament’s ethics committee wants Zwane to answer questions on his contentious 2016 trip to Switzerland with the Guptas when he was mineral resources minister.
Zwane confirmed receiving the letter but did not comment further.
A party leader close to Zwane said the latest move by the ethics committee was aimed at purging “radical economic transformation forces”.
“This thing happened more than two years ago. Why are they demanding answers now?” said the ANC leader, who asked not to be named.
Muthambi could not be reached for comment.
Ethics committee chair Bheki Nkosi said his committee did not comment on continuing matters.