Inkatha Freedom Party leader and Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Tuesday turned the Scorpions corruption case against businessman Schabir Shaik into an effective weapon to stab at the wounded leadership of the African National Congress.

Buthelezi said the electorate should cut the ruling party to a smaller size next year to send a message that corruption would not be tolerated.

In a hard-hitting address to the Johannesburg Press Club on Tuesday Buthelezi said there was a need for a new class of politicians to hold government to account and who were themselves accountable to the people. It was not possible to hold people accountable unless they feared that they would get into trouble if they did not mend their ways.

"At present there is no such fear in most of our political class. They feel that they are there to stay. Therefore, it is essential that the next elections reverse this status of affairs by sending a message that things must change and that the people are, indeed, capable of producing such a change irrespective of what those who are in power wish to see happen.

"If this is to be achieved something very simple needs to be obtained. For the sake of democracy, the ruling party needs to be cut down to a smaller size. There cannot be accountability unless those who are in power feel the bite of the electorate and fear its judgment," Buthelezi said.

Other political leaders on Tuesday were at pains to point out that Deputy President Jacob Zuma heads the government's moral regeneration campaign. The Democratic Alliance's Tony Leon and Independent Democrat's Patricia de Lille both said the honourable thing would be for Zuma to step down from the deputy presidency.

Buthelezi said corruption was a wide ranging problem that affected both the public and private sector. It was about living in a society where to move forward in life one needed to have "connections".

"Corruption is about having to have political influence in order to transact business or securing government contracts. It is about the disparity between the dream embodied in empowering programmes and the reality of a very few people enriching themselves. It is about the greed for power and the complacency of those who feel that they are above the law.

"It is about the daily disintegration of the rule of law because people break the rules and assume that they are immune of the dictates of the rule of law. It is about a society which does not work by the rules, but makes rules up as it works," Buthelezi said.

This week the country has been rocked by allegations that Deputy President Jacob Zuma used his political influence to assist Durban businessman Schabir Shaik to secure government contracts. In return, Shaik bankrolled Zuma under the pretence that he was his financial adviser. He also allegedly solicited a R500 000 per annum bribe from Thomson/Thales, which successfully won an arms deal contract in exchange for protection from criminal investigation.

The Scorpions decided not to charge Zuma with corruption, saying that while they had a prima facie case against him, their chances of winning in court were slim. Instead they have charged Shaik with various counts of corruption, fraud, theft of company assets, tax evasion and reckless trading.

With acknowledgements to Charles Phahlane and the Daily News.