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President Cyril Ramaphosa has won the last battle in the fight to cleanse the party of leaders accused of corruption, and his top leadership reaffirmed the decision to force them to leave their positions in the party and the state.
The party’s national executive committee (NEC), which concluded a three-day virtual meeting on Tuesday afternoon, confirmed its August decision to implement the rule, in line with the resolutions of its 54th national conference in December 2017.
He decided that the six top party officials would now draw up guidelines to implement the decision, which has threatened to divide the party, and present them to the ANC’s (NWC) national working committee and the NEC when they meet next year.
In his televised closing address to the NEC meeting, Ramaphosa announced that Secretary General Ace Magashule, who is out on bail after being arrested in the R255 million Free State asbestos audit scandal, would appear before the party integrity commission on December 12.
The commission would assess the situation for Magashule, who previously stated that he would not step aside, and make recommendations to management on what actions to take with regard to the secretary general.
Ramaphosa said the NEC “welcomed” Magashule’s decision to appear before the commission.
ANC officials would “process” the commission’s determination and report back to the NEC and NWC, as well as provide their draft guidelines on how the “walk away” rule would be enforced.
Ramaphosa said officials would have to meet with the party’s provincial secretaries and the secretaries of its women’s and youth leagues, who were also struggling to implement the “stay out of it” rule.
He said the lower structures experienced “precisely the same challenges” as the NEC.
“We need to integrate the experience of all the structures of our movement to arrive at a… convincing position. We are confident that we will be able to solve this problem and still be able to implement the resolutions of our conference, ”Ramaphosa said.
Magashule supporters and former President Jacob Zuma have opposed the implementation of the rule against Magashule, arguing that he, like Zuma, is under attack.
Ramaphosa said the NEC had condemned the burning of ANC insignia and verbal attacks on party leaders outside of Magashule’s court appearance in Mangaung last month.
He called on all ANC members to refrain from such behavior, calling it “improper.”
“It is not acceptable and must be stopped,” he said.
Ramaphosa said predictions that the NEC meeting would disintegrate into chaos due to admittedly severe divisions on the issue had not materialized.
He said officials would finalize the guidelines for dealing with those who were charged, convicted or charged with criminal offenses and present them to the NEC and NWC.
He said that the ANC was a voluntary organization and that, although it had obtained legal opinions on the “stay out” rule, it had a moral obligation to implement the resolution.
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