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Trade union federation Cosatu has called on ANC leaders implicated in state capture and the VBS scandal to recuse themselves from the ANC’s election list for public representatives in provincial and national governments.
Last week, the commission of inquiry into state capture heard how Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, Environmental Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane and former South African Airways chairperson Dudu Myeni allegedly received upgrades to their properties from the embattled facilities company Bosasa. The ANC has since said the commission was not a court of law.
ANC Limpopo leaders Danny Msiza and Florence Radzilani were among the ANC leaders mentioned in the damning forensic report, titled The Great Bank Heist, about massive looting at the embattled VBS Mutual Bank.
Cosatu President Zingiswa Losi today called on the ANC to choose between itself and individuals.
“The Nasrec conference of the ANC agreed that the integrity of the organisation must be protected.
"We are saying, in the process that you are also trying to clear your name, if you have any intention [of standing for public office] the least you can do is to protect the integrity of the organisation. Voters out there do not make [the distinction] whether you are guilty or not,” Losi said during a media briefing in Braamfontein, on the outcomes of Cosatu’s special central executive committee meeting.
Losi said voters would believe allegations of corruption levelled against some ANC leaders if those implicated didn’t come to state their case.
“We understand and we respect the rule of law that you are presumed innocent until you are proven otherwise. But now we are going to elections. When your name is mentioned and you are not saying anything, you are leading the voters to believe that what is said about you has [the] potential to be correct,” she said.
Losi said Cosatu resolved at its national congress last year to campaign for the victory of the ANC and the federation would defend the ANC.
“But, individuals in the ANC that are tainted must recuse themselves in this process [election list]. There are many leaders in the ANC. Leaders in the ANC are not only those who went into exile.”
Cosatu’s first deputy president, Mike Shingange, warned that tainted ANC leaders were going to make it difficult for the party to do its work properly and to be electable.
