• The ANC's top six say all those facing charges for corruption or serious crimes should step aside with immediate effect.
• The party says those implicated in claims of corruption should appear before the party's integrity committee.
• The ANC's NEC has also resolved to set up guidelines for internal contests, with rules focusing on lobbying and campaigning.

The ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) has urged law enforcement agencies to leave no stone unturned when dealing with Covid-19 corruption.

The party’s top six, in an unusual move, held a media briefing where President Cyril Ramaphosa read the statement from the three-day meeting held by the ANC’s highest decision-making body in between conferences.

Ramaphosa said ANC members who had been formally charged for corruption or other serious crimes must step aside from all leadership positions in the party, in legislatures, and other government structures pending the finalisation of their cases.

He also said those reportedly involved in serious crimes or corruption would have to present themselves to the ANC’s integrity commission to give their side of the story, with those who provide an unsatisfactory explanation facing suspension.

This comes on the back of decisions to instruct controversial former Ethekwini Mayor Zandile Gumede to step aside from her newly appointed position as a member of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature.

The executive committee had also agreed that those convicted of corruption or serious crime should resign from their positions and face disciplinary action in line with the party’s constitution.

Resigned

This has resulted in another controversial figure Andile Lungisa, who recently resigned as a member of the Nelson Mandela Bay mayoral committee, being instructed by a regional body to quit his job as a councillor and being part of a branch task team.

“The NEC agreed that this will be a turning point in the fight against corruption,” read Ramaphosa.

His letter to party members labelling the ANC “accused number 1” when it comes to corruption was endorsed by the NEC, which also committed to meeting with the integrity commission, a structure made up of ANC stalwarts meant to measure the behaviour of members against the values espoused by the former liberation movement.

Ramaphosa said the meeting is aimed at strengthening the role of the integrity commission and ensuring that it is well resourced in order to carry out its mandate.

READ | Ramaphosa talks Zuma, Yengeni and corruption in NEC briefing, condemns 'campaign' against him

He also told journalists at the virtual post ANC NEC meeting that if it was up to him, the IC’s decisions would be binding instead of the current form, in which it makes recommendations to the NEC.

The party said it would also put in place a system for its leaders to make regular declarations of financial interests.

“Drawing on existing practices in Parliament and government, the system will need to ensure a proper balance between privacy and accountability,” said the president.

The NEC also resolved that guidelines for ANC leaders and their families doing business would be established.

This has been in the spotlight over recent months with family members and those with close links to the party’s leaders scoring large Covid-19 related tenders across different government departments.

The ANC’s secretary general’s sons and Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Khusela Diko’s husband were among those awarded large Covid-19 procurement contracts.

CR17 

In reference to his own ANC elective campaign saga Ramaphosa said the party would also seek to establish guidelines on its approach to internal leadership contests, with a key focus on lobbying and campaigning.

“This will take into account the organisation’s experiences over many years and will be guided by the overriding imperative to ensure that internal democratic processes protect the movement’s integrity and do indeed produce the best cadres to lead transformation,” Ramaphosa said.

Attacks on the president in the lead up to the weekend’s meetings were characterised as “choreographed,” with Ramaphosa himself telling journalists he would not be publicly responding to a scathing letter directed at him by his predecessor former President Jacob Zuma.

Zuma did not pull any punches in the now widely circulated letter, saying that unless Ramaphosa and the NEC "comes clean" on how he was elected, his letters would be "construed as your attempts to appease those who, by their ill-gotten riches, catapulted you into the position you hold in our movement".

"We all know that such donations amounted to sacrificing the historic mission of the ANC for 30 pieces of silver," he said.

In the 12-page letter, Zuma tells Ramaphosa that he, and not the ANC, should hang his head in shame. 

While the ANC NEC dismissed Zuma's letter, Ramaphosa did not appear antagonistic in response.  "

No, we will not go that way. I don’t see it as an insult. I am not that easily insulted… Much as people can stand on mountains and hills and seek to insult me. I am not easily insulted," said Ramaphosa. 

"The burden of leadership is that you must be able to get members and others to get to express themselves," he added.

Covid-19

The NEC also discussed the ANC government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which hit the country in March, saying it was encouraged by the significant decline in new cases.

"These figures suggest that the country has most likely passed the peak of infections earlier than projected and with fewer infections and fatalities," he noted.

A tribute to those who’ve succumbed to the virus and to health care workers who are on the frontlines was coupled with commitment to ensuring there was adequate personal protective equipment for those serving the nation in its hospitals.

Other matters discussed included local government, gender-based violence, the African agenda, as well as progress on economic reconstruction and recovery.

Ramaphosa said while relief measures through the R500 billion fund to assist with the health effects and to prevent a humanitarian crisis continues to have a positive impact it was insufficient to deal with the totality of the challenges of unemployment, poverty, inequality, and exclusion in the country.

"It is in this context that the work on a reconstruction, growth, and transformation plan should be completed as urgently as possible," he said.

The ANC’s NEC is expected to hold a special NEC lekgotla in this regard.