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9h ago
By Lou-Anne Daniels and Tim Cocks
President Cyril Ramaphosa will submit to the ANC Integrity Commission after surviving a push from senior party members to resign, according to reports from the party’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting at the Saint George Hotel in Pretoria.
Ramaphosa will be the first sitting ANC president to appear before the commission.
The party’s general secretary, Ace Magashule, has been summoned to appear before the commission, reportedly after a recent statement that no one should be expected to resign from high-level positions in the ANC on baseless allegations.
The vote buying allegations at the ANC’s election conference in Nasrec in 2017 have dogged Ramaphosa for the past two years.
The North Gauteng High Court has set aside Public Protector Busi Mkhwebane’s report on the ANC’s Ramaphosa presidential campaign, but the ruling is being appealed in the Constitutional Court.
Hours earlier, the mayor of Ekurhuleni city, Mzwandile Masina, formed a picket line outside the hotel and called for corrupt party leaders to step aside. He said that any party leader who has a pending court case against him must resign, including the president.
“Anyone who has a matter before the court should step aside,” Masina said, referring to the ongoing legal dispute over Ramaphosa’s CR17 campaign.
ANC NEC member Tony Yengeni called for Ramaphosa to resign on Friday over the allegations.
Also on Friday, former President Jacob Zuma, who is facing trial over the multi-million dollar arms deal, lashed out at Ramaphosa, accusing him of betraying the ANC with his anti-corruption stance.
In an unprecedented attack, Zuma, whose decade in power was marked by multiple corruption scandals that are still being investigated, accused Ramaphosa of discrediting the party, a sign of growing divisions within the ANC.
Zuma retains considerable support from a powerful faction within the ANC that is believed to be pushing for Ramaphosa to resign or be recalled.
Ramaphosa has ordered investigations into reports of corruption in the government’s response to Covid-19, including the diversion of funds earmarked for protective equipment for Covid-19 doctors, as well as the distribution of food.
Many scandals have involved young members of the ANC who conspired with family businesses to defraud Covid-19 funds. The president’s own spokeswoman, Kusela Diko, took leave after her husband was implicated in a major tender scandal involving the Gauteng Health MEC, with whom the couple is close friends.
This week, Ramaphosa wrote a letter to ANC members saying that its “leaders are accused of corruption” and that the ANC “is the number one accused.”
Zuma, who has so far desisted from making explicit public attacks on his successor, said in response:
“You are the first president of the ANC to appear in public and accuse the ANC of criminality … This is a devastating statement … I see your letter as a deviation whereby you accuse the entire ANC to save your own skin.” .
Divisions within the ANC could make it difficult for Ramaphosa, whose presidency has been haunted by opposition from party factions since he took office two and a half years ago, to push through the economic reforms necessary to revive the country’s struggling economy.
IOL and Reuters
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