FILE PHOTO: ANC NEC meeting descended into chaos as members from two faction hurled insults. PHOTOGRAPH: ALON SKUY
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0 JOHANNESBURG: Mr Ramaphosa after concluding a meeting with other officials took a decision to postpone his address to Monday evening.
South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) meeting descended into chaos on Sunday evening as leaders continued to trade insults as heard from a series of leaked audios.
The chaos came after the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) debated the issue of criminally charged leaders to step aside within seven days.
Members of the public noticed when a link set up for the party’s president, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa to deliver a public closing address was abandoned. It is reported that a number of officials left the gathering to hold their own meeting, returning to request two weeks to consult.
Mr Ramaphosa after concluding a meeting with other officials took a decision to postpone his address to Monday evening. The party – clouded by many corruption charged leaders and members – is failing to adopt the report of the party’s disciplinary body, ANC Integrity Committee.
Among those targetted is the party’s secretary-general, Mr Ace Magashule is facing oversight charges for a failed asbestos project when he was Premier of the Free State.
According to a political analyst, Mr Xolani Dube, from a Durban-based think tank body, Xubera Institute for Research and Development, “What do you expect from the madhouse?”
“The ANC has become a madhouse! It’s what happens when an organisation is being led by people with no vision… and no sympathy for the people they represent…”
Mr Dube was speaking during an interview he had with a Johannesburg-based talk radio station, wherein he pointed out that the ANC is run by leaders with no vision.
“We are in a sinkhole as a country,” Mr Dube said during the interview. “This is an organisation that survives on slogans…,” implying that the ANC rely on slogans to woo its voters.
“The ANC is no longer an honourable organisation like before. We must no longer be prisoners of our history,” Mr Dube cautioning South Africans.
The meeting which ended after members of the ANC’s highest decision body, the NEC, were heard shouting one another after they have failed to agree on the resolution of stepping down in seven days for those charged with corruption.
“We’re discussing the matter of stepping aside of a number of people, not just one individual,” said ANC deputy secretary-general Ms Jessie Duarte on Monday.
“It has nothing to do with one person and yet that is the only thing the media is interested in and those who have an agenda of their own,” Ms Duarte added.
In his closing address, Mr Ramaphosa confirmed that members facing criminal charges before a court of law must step aside from their positions and present themselves to the party’s integrity commission.
“All members who have been charged with corruption or other serious crimes must step aside within 30 days, failing which they should be suspended in terms of Rule 25.70 of the ANC Constitution,” he said.
“The meeting emphasised that the 30 day period will be to enable the implementation of the decision in line with the guidelines, not to review the decision,” Mr Ramaphosa concluded.
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