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ANC Undersecretary General Jessie Duarte.
- Getting ANC leaders who have pledged to resign is not a simple matter, says the party’s deputy secretary-general, Jessie Duarte.
- Some leaders are asked to resign, but when the case is dropped, there is no turning back.
- Duarte did not want to compromise the party’s discussions by speaking on these issues.
The ANC’s Deputy Secretary General has weighed in on the possibility of getting ANC leaders to resign when charged with serious crimes is not a simple matter, ANC Deputy Secretary General Jessie Duarte said on Friday.
“The fact is that we cannot treat this too simplistically,” Duarte told reporters at a briefing in Polokwane that focused on the ANC’s eighth birthday rally, to be held there on the second weekend of January.
“Accusations are indictments and as we see as we move forward, there are cases where people have been indicted and cases are being pulled out of court after the positions they were in were vacated, and there is no going back. behind”.
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria in August on procedural grounds overturned the rulings against ANC Limpopo treasurer Danny Msiza in connection with the looting of VBS Mutual Bank.
Msiza was suspended from his post in 2018 after the ANC integrity commission recommended that he step aside, but was reinstated two years later by the party’s National Executive Committee as no criminal charges were brought against him in that moment.
READ | Magashule must resign immediately, says ANC integrity commission
Msiza is one of the examples used by those who argue that leaders such as ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule should remain in office even when 21 charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering were brought against him in connection with a bid for eradication. of asbestos.
Former eThekwini Mayor Zandile Gumede was also allowed to resume her activities in the party and was reinstated as a member of the provincial legislature after the party’s provincial executive committee said the court case against her, started 18 months ago, it was almost non-existent. .
ANC spokesman Pule Mabe told reporters that questions about compromised leaders were not allowed during a briefing that should focus on ANC celebrations, but Duarte responded on the matter anyway.
She also said:
“The ANC’s NEC is really busy quite diligently on this matter, and I know you would like me to give you answers here and now that they could undo what the NEC is discussing, and I don’t want to.”
ANC treasurer Paul Mashatile warned that the ANC should allow proper procedures in Magashule’s case because failure to listen could cause divisions.
The party’s integrity commission recommended this week in a report that the ANC’s NEC should ask Magashule to resign. Magashule said it would wait for the report to be discussed first at the NEC, which is expected to meet again next month.
