Call: reinstate VBS-tainted 2

ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte says all the party’s regions and structures in Limpopo have agreed the two officials implicated in the collapse of the VBS Mutual Bank should be reinstated.

She said it was a case of “justice delayed is justice denied”, as the two officials – provincial deputy chairwoman Florence Radzilani and treasurer Danny Msiza – had offered themselves up for scrutiny before the law and the party, yet nothing had come of it.

The two are linked to the looting of the VBS Mutual Bank that collapsed in 2018.

Duarte defended the party’s disciplinary committees’ rights to perform its duties as per usual. This was on the back of comments by Eastern Cape cooperative governance MEC Xolile Nqatha that these should ease up, as some members battled Covid-19.

“It’s not correct for the integrity commission of the ANC not to give a hearing to the two people in the report.

“Many people in Limpopo have suffered, but it’s impossible to move ahead unless you do things correctly,” she said.

Duarte’s comments that all party structures in the province had welcomed Msiza and Radzilani’s return comes on the back of ANC veterans and VBS shareholders rejecting the decision.

Her comments also come as the ANC’s national working committee met yesterday, with some members wanting to bring up the matter in the hope of dissuading the organisation from the move.

George Mashamba, who heads the ANC’s integrity committee, said the national executive committee (NEC) had initially agreed with its calls for the two to be suspended in 2018, but had since clearly changed its mind.

“It is the NEC’s baby, not ours. Sometimes they accept our recommendations, other times they don’t,” he said.

Refusing to enter “that terrain”, he said the committee’s role was not to play a judgmental role in the ANC, adding that it could recommend when people should face disciplinary action, but didn’t fulfil that task as there were committees to do that.

“You want us to go on the streets and have a war with the NEC. That won’t help.

“In fact, that would actually bring the ANC into disrepute,” he said, when called for a reaction.

Comparing the structure to a “religious minister”, Mashamba said their task called for patience and not “teeth”.

– News24 Wire

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NEC initially agreed with calls for the two to be suspended ... but has since clearly changed its mind.

George Mashamba ANC integrity committee