Two ANC Limpopo leaders linked to corruption at VBS are returning to their positions, to the disbelief of some within the party, writes Qaanitah Hunter.
ANC Limpopo provincial secretary Soviet Lekganyane laughed hard when he heard a decision by ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule that two ANC Limpopo leaders, linked to corruption at VBS, had been reinstated to their position with immediate effect.
It was first a snicker and then he chuckled in disbelief.
“I am so confused,” he said in response to the announcement.
He was not expecting Luthuli House to announce that ANC Limpopo treasurer Danny Msiza and deputy chairperson Florence Radzilani could return to their positions immediately.
He wouldn’t comment further, but it was clear in his tone that he thought a directive by ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa, when he wrapped up the meeting, that the party would first engage with branch members and the community of Limpopo on the matter.
But the popular view reigned supreme.
For the NEC, the VBS report was just another report implicating ANC leaders. What’s the fuss?
ANC and corruption
On Wednesday, Magashule categorically stated that, despite accusations that the two benefitted from corruption at the now defunct VBS Mutual Bank, they can and must return to their positions in the ANC.
“These comrades have been mentioned in reports like many comrades mentioned in many reports. You can’t charge people because of allegations,” Magashule said.
In this statement, lies the problem within the ANC and corruption.
The ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) is filled with people implicated in wrongdoing and corruption. Some are facing charges and many have been accused in forums, like the Zondo Commission of Inquiry investigating state capture.
No one in the ANC NEC can hold the moral high ground anymore. Not when Magashule – who is also facing a raft of accusations – is in charge.
Magashule waxed lyrical that Msiza and Radzilani had not been charged nor were they found guilty – and, after being suspended for two years, they must return to their positions.
By all accounts, that was the majority view of the NEC.
Motau report
I gasped in horror when I heard how some ANC politicians tried to dismiss the Motau report as a mere string of accusations.
It was almost as if, comparatively to what other leaders of the ANC had been accused of, using political influence to convince mayors and municipal officials from at least 10 Limpopo municipalities to invest hundreds of millions of rands in exchange for Vhembe municipality investing R300 million in the bank, was a mere misdemeanour.
And two years without the power of the ANC position was enough punishment, it seemed.
For others, the public furore was over and the public anger had been forgotten.
The fact that Msiza and Radzilani were not among the first group of people arrested in connection with the VBS heist was enough for them to be returned to their jobs.
Never mind the old gogos who lost their life savings. Never mind the hundreds of millions of rands in public funds vanishing overnight.
Then there’s the fact that barefaced corruption is reduced to ANC factional fighting.
People like Lekganyane, who have vehemently opposed the reinstatement of Msiza and Radzilani, citing the poor who were left destitute as a result of this bank heist, are accused of using the VBS matter to secure re-election at the next ANC Limpopo conference next year.
Limpopo scores
George Mashamba, who heads up the ANC’s integrity committee, is accused in the corridors of settling old Limpopo scores when he recommended to the NEC that the pair should remain on suspension.
It is, and never will be, about ethical leadership.
Before, during the Zuma years, the accusations of corruption used to be ignored all together.
Now, under the current dispensation, action is taken where people are removed from office, but months down the line, they return to their positions or get slipped into other positions under the guise of the ANC maintaining the principle of innocent until proven guilty.
When Magashule says people must be found guilty in a court of law, he knows full well that the criminal justice system was torn apart.
That means an ANC leader implicated in serious corruption can serve for years, decades even, without any charges.
Magashule’s comments on Wednesday reinforces the view that the ANC doesn’t take corruption seriously.
It never will. Not even when money is stolen from the hands of the poor and the aged of Limpopo.
– Qaanitah Hunter is News24’s political editor
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