‘Rid ANC lists of tainted leaders’
COSATU has warned the ANC that opposition parties will easily out-campaign it in the run-up to the general elections if it does not remove its tainted leaders from the elections list processes.
This comes as the ANC remains at pains to explain the reasons why it cannot act against its top politicians implicated in alleged criminality in the Zondo commission into state capture.
The leaders include Environmental Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane and ANC MP Vincent Smith, accused of being among top politicians who received monthly bribes from controversial company Bosasa.
Yesterday, Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said the ANC had to ensure that none of the people fingered in wrongdoing were made public representatives of the party.
“We are calling on all those implicated in state capture and the VBS looting scandal to recuse themselves from ANC elections list processes.
“The ANC has enough capable and honest people in its ranks. The ANC should not be recycling compromised, tainted characters,” he said.
Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi said opposition parties would use the ANC’s tainted list to out-campaign the party. The ANC had a duty to uphold its resolutions on ethical leadership by dealing with those implicated, she said. “The Nasrec conference of the ANC agreed that the integrity of the organisation must be protected from anyone tainted by corruption, particularly those individuals who have failed to come out and say ‘I want to state my case’.”
Losi slammed those who kept quiet despite explosive allegations of criminality against them, saying they were endangering the ANC’s electoral prospects. “When your name gets mentioned and you are not saying anything, you are leaving us, and particularly the voters, to believe that what is said about you has a potential of being correct.”
The ANC has said its candidate lists for legislatures and Parliament would be subjected to a vetting process. Cosatu deputy president Mike Shingange stressed that the federation was assisting in the the vetting process by calling for tainted individuals to be kicked off the list. “The list the ANC must emerge with is one that must make the ANC electable and make the ANC government function well, so the names that appear in the state capture and every other inquiry will make the ANC to be not easily electable.”