Over the weekend, the first reports emerged that the ANC secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, had told the party’s Veterans’ League that its Integrity Commission would investigate three high-ranking party members, Malusi Gigaba, David Mahlobo and Cedric Frolick.
All three have serious questions to answer after the Zondo Commission’s report, but have not yet been legally charged.
Strangely, Mbalula has not made any public statement about this so far. Rather, ANC Veterans’ League leader Snuki Zikalala is the person who has been quoted in news reports.
Zikalala and his league have been running a campaign for accountability in the ANC, and have long criticised its leadership for allowing people implicated in wrongdoing to represent the party in Parliament.
There is much that is odd about this decision.
First, it is too late. The ANC has known for many years that the perception that it enables corruption has cost it electoral support.
Despite promising, for more than a decade, to act against its corrupt members, the ANC allowed them to represent it as MPs. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has claimed many, many times the party is on a path of “renewal”, even appointed Mahlobo to his executive again, this time as deputy minister of water affairs and sanitation.
It was yet another public display of hypocrisy — why would he appoint to his government a person against whom so many extraordinary reports of criminality have been made?
The answer reveals much about the ANC, and that Mahlobo and others like him have significant political power.
This is a party that allowed Zweli Mkhize, implicated in the Digital Vibes scandal, to contest for the position of leader in 2022.
Gigaba, who was found to have lied under oath, was implicated in receiving huge amounts of cash from the Guptas, who enabled the destruction of SAA and recorded an infamous video, suddenly emerged once again as an ANC MP.
Hot air
The problem with the ANC’s position now is that when it promises to act against corrupt individuals, voters do not believe it.
After all, it was in 2012 that the party’s Mangaung Conference resolved that any member of the ANC found guilty of financial crimes or corruption by a court of law would be automatically expelled. By 2014, that resolution was just dead, empty words.
Even after the State Capture era, the ANC failed to act.
At the party’s policy conference in 2022, it was clear that the Integrity Commission’s chair at the time, George Mashamba, was both not empowered and not concerned about the problem.
Just over a year ago now, the Integrity Commission’s new chair, Frank Chikane, promised action, saying he would move against 97 party members implicated by the Zondo Commission.
Those 97 included Gigaba, Frolick and Mahlobo. Over an entire year, when the ANC faced an electorate it knew was concerned about corruption, it did precisely, exactly, absolutely … nothing.
This is why the party is likely to continue to lose support in the future, particularly in the local elections in 18 months.
While the timing of this move is curious, it does come in the context of what appears to be a more assertive tone from Ramaphosa. The real trigger for this action may be that his faction now feels it can move more freely.
One of the curious aspects of the coalition government is that it seems to have made Ramaphosa stronger within the ANC. At the same time, some of those who supported Gigaba, Mahlobo and others of their ilk have left the party.
Lying under pressure
Mbalula has interests of his own to pursue. The chatter is that he may make a play to be the ANC’s president in three years.
While he has a track record of lying under pressure, as secretary-general he is in a good position from which to campaign, and he appears to be trying to spruce up his public image.
Unfortunately, the fact that no action has yet been taken against Gigaba, Mahlobo and Frolick is a symbol of one of the most concerning developments in our country in the past few years: Despite all the evidence heard at the Zondo Commission, virtually no one has gone through legal proceedings to hold them accountable.
Of course, the National Prosecuting Authority is now making progress.
However, in some cases, political influence is still making itself felt. How else can one explain the fact that the acting magistrate in the Matshela Koko case had received money from Eskom in the past? (The Investigating Directorate has lodged a complaint against him.)
The fact that the MK party can now provide jobs in Parliament for Brian Molefe, Lucky Montana and Siyabonga Gama is an indication of how Ramaphosa’s promises of accountability have rung so hollow.
Optimists will believe that this reported promise by Mbalula is the beginning of something new, and were the Integrity Commission to take serious action against Gigaba, Mahlobo and Frolick, it could be the start of real change.
Unfortunately, after so many false dawns, we will believe it only once it happens. DM