President Cyril Ramaphosa’s failure to tackle corruption is attributable to his concern for the unity of the party, says Mavuso Msimang, long-time member of the African National Congress and of its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe.
Speaking to the Financial Mail, Msimang said: ‘There’s a very simple answer. It is that the president’s blind commitment to so-called “party unity” is what is costing him this fight. Some of those he still works closely with, in his own circle, are among the corrupt. And no action has been taken against them by the party, let alone by agencies like the Hawks.’
He went to say that even ‘timid’ initiatives to deal with corruption – such as the ‘step aside’ requirements for those charged with serious corruption – are not properly enforced or are heavily contested by those who stand to be punished by them.
He added that the law enforcement agencies themselves are compromised by corruption and incompetence, and by the fact that the minister of police and commissioner of police are at loggerheads.
He told the FM: ‘Capacity in the law enforcement agencies is really low. Many people left during the Zuma era, and I don’t know how long it’ll take to build this up again, but it’s tremendously sad. The authorities seem surprised at just about everything.’
Msimang’s observations tally with analysis previously done by the IRR, which indicated that a majority of the ANC’s National Executive Committee faced serious allegations of corruption, and that this was distributed across Ramaphosa’s supporters and opponents.
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