To stand a chance in fight against corruption, ANC must empower its integrity commission, or else

A series of developments at the ANC’s recent national policy conference would appear to again confirm its impotence in fighting corruption within its ranks — and an interview with the chair of the ANC’s integrity commission, George Mashamba, may be particularly revealing of its inability to actually do anything about notoriously corrupt people like Mosebenzi Zwane and David Mahlobo.

It was former president Kgalema Motlanthe who shone a light on what may be a way forward for the party. And yet, at this very same event, the actions of National Executive Committee (NEC) member Tony Yengeni once again point to the long-term consequences of the ANC’s failure to follow its own constitution.

When opening the conference, President Cyril Ramaphosa made a forceful statement, stating that South Africa “would never forgive” the ANC for “turning its back” on the fight against corruption. It was an example of how both he and the party publicly claim that they are determined to root out those who are corrupt from their ranks.

Key to this is how the party has reacted to the Zondo Commission’s findings that its top officials were corrupt as hell, and in at least one case, was a “Gupta minister”. So important is this to the ANC that it devoted an entire session of its policy conference to discuss just this issue.

But away from the plenary hall, there were indications that not one of those who were implicated in State Capture is at all concerned. 

In what can only be described as an extraordinary interview on Newzroom Afrika, the chair of the ANC’s integrity committee, Mashamba, gave this writer every impression that the party is simply not serious about corruption.

https://youtu.be/tcyn4FiiX-E

Two weeks ago, the NEC said that those implicated in the Zondo Commission’s final report must willingly go to Mashamba’s commission to explain themselves. They were given two months to do so.

But Mashamba confirmed that not one person had reported to his committee since the NEC decision.

When asked if he was disappointed by that, he said: “No, no … I forget, they say they will send a list … I don’t know, but maybe after this [the policy conference] they will be able to give us a list of people mentioned there.”

When I told him that the fight against corruption was vital to the ANC and that “the body that you chair, the integrity [commission] is absolutely vital to that”, his response was to laugh and say: “I don’t know about it, fine, okay.”

My response was: “You don’t think you are vital to it?”

This elicited a stronger, more substantive response, with Mashamba saying: “Well, there is a commission and an elected leadership… We deal with the issues of the organisation, we deal with whatever little thing we have to deal with. I call it little because there are other commissions and other committees; we make our input and they decide what to do.”

Then came more details, with a question about Mosebenzi Zwane, who was labelled a “Gupta minister” by the Zondo report.

The question was put like this: “If the ANC was serious [about fighting corruption], David Mahlobo and Mosebenzi Zwane would be scared of your organisation. The first moment they had, they would come and report to you when the NEC said they should. They wouldn’t wait two months or six months, they would come to you immediately if they took the ANC’s fight against corruption seriously.

“To me, the fact that David Mahlobo and Mosebenzi Zwane have not done that, as you have confirmed to us, says they are not worried, and that, to me, says they don’t believe the ANC is going to take corruption seriously.”

What’s really happening