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ANC Northern Cape Secretary Deshi Ngxanga said Secretary General Ace Magashule’s insistence that the guidelines for the implementation of the side-step resolution must first be approved by the party’s branches was simply wrong.
ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule addresses a press conference following his appearance in Bloemfontein Magistrates Court on charges of fraud and corruption on February 19, 2021. Image: Xanderleigh Dookey Makhaza / Eyewitness News.
JOHANNESBURG – There is still disagreement within the African National Congress (ANC) on whether politicians should step aside if accused of corruption.
ANC Northern Cape Secretary Deshi Ngxanga said Secretary General Ace Magashule’s insistence that the guidelines for the implementation of the side-step resolution must first be approved by the party’s branches was simply wrong.
Ngxanga said the ANC constitution was clear about the role and powers of the party’s national executive committee.
Magashule, with great effort, told reporters during a press conference after his second appearance in a Bloemfontein court on corruption allegations that the ANC’s NEC did not have sufficient powers to adopt the regulations.
READ: Fraud and corruption case against Magashule, co-defendant transferred to higher court
The NEC is the party’s highest decision-making body between conferences.
Pressure has increased for Magashule to vacate his post due to multiple allegations of corruption, fraud and money laundering against him and 15 others, including five companies.
But Magashule continues to insist that the party’s branches, which constitute the organization’s most basic unit, will have the last word on its fate.
He even argued with Eyewitness news last week when asked about the authority given to the executive committee to make key decisions on behalf of those branches.
But Ngxanga said this was Magashule’s own interpretation, not to be confused with the ANC’s constitution.
READ: Is the ANC NEC’s call to step aside guidelines the beginning of the end for Magashule?
He said the party’s national executive had been empowered to draw up and seek guidelines on issues affecting the organization.
“It is just wrong and it is the SG’s own interpretation of how things should be done. That is not what the ANC constitution says ”.
The ANC NEC adopted the regulations two weeks ago and its top six will now have to go through various integrity commission reports, including one recommending that Magashule step aside with immediate effect.
LOOK: Magashule: When the case against me is concluded, history will absolve some of us
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