Party elders no substitute for rejuvenated crime fighters

Spare a thought for members of the ANC’s integrity commission. Almost all of them are senior citizens who should be peacefully enjoying their well-deserved retirement after decades of service to, and sacrifice for, our nation. Among them are George Mashamba and Andrew Mlangeni, men who spent many years on Robben Island for their roles in the struggle against apartheid.

Then there is Sophia de Bruyn, the last living leader of the 1956 Women’s March to JG Strijdom’s Union Buildings, and Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, a Catholic priest who became one of the spokespeople for justice when political leaders were banned, jailed or exiled.

Others, like Sue Rabkin and Sindiso Mfenyana, are individuals who spent much of their prime away from these shores, working to free SA from the racist system.

They all should be resting at home now, peacefully enjoying the fruits of liberation.

Yet when the ANC called on them for one more task, a sense of duty, and perhaps patriotism, caused them to agree with very little hesitation.

Its image badly battered by a string of corruption cases involving some of its most prominent and powerful leaders, the ANC turned to its veterans for help. They were to be part of an integrity commission whose job was to protect the party’s image by rooting out rotten apples from within the party leadership and membership.

The commission’s powers included the ability to investigate members and leaders accused of corruption and unethical behaviour and to recommend action to be taken against them.

Those who supported the initiative saw it as a major step away from the tired and discredited ANC approach of refusing to act against any member until they had been convicted in court, under the guise of respect for the “innocent until proven guilty” principle.

The commission would not have to wait for the courts, the party said, but could take proactive action such as calling in a member for questioning and then, depending on the evidence, recommending appropriate action to protect the party’s integrity.

But there was an important proviso: the integrity commission’s recommendations would be subject to approval by the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC).

It is here that the great and noble efforts of the elders would come unstuck.

Recent confusion over whether the NEC has decided to reinstate two Limpopo party officials implicated in the VBS Mutual Bank “heist” highlights the fundamental flaw of trying to root out corruption within the party using the integrity commission.

It may be obvious to everyone else that the integrity commission is right to insist that Florence Radzilani and Danny Msiza remain suspended from their posts as provincial deputy chair and provincial treasurer, respectively, until investigations into their involvement in the VBS matter are concluded, but the body that makes the final decision — the NEC — has too many conflicted members to see things the same way. Conflicted, because a significant number of NEC members, as they deliberated on the Radzilani and Msiza cases, had dark corruption clouds hanging over their own heads.

It was not lost on them that agreeing to the extension of the suspensions would open the possibility for the integrity commission to take a similar approach against them when their own cases come before this group of elders.

All that this tells us is that internal party processes, though important, cannot be adequate to fight corruption — especially not in a political party like the ANC, where so many of its leaders are implicated.

Noble as the efforts of the struggle veterans making up the integrity commission may be, there is always a possibility of them being blocked by those who currently wield power and have their own “smallanyana skeletons” to protect.

To this crowd, the committee of elders is just a fig leaf intended to cover the fact that very little is being done to root out the corrupt.

The real solution is the strengthening of the National Prosecuting Authority and other law enforcement agencies so that they act swiftly against those accused of wrongdoing — and prevent delays in investigations being used as a justification for letting the politically connected off the hook.