Publication: The Star Issued: Date: 2007-03-16 Reporter: Moshoeshoe Monare

ANC Admits Graft Guilt

 

Publication 

The Star
Date

2007-03-16

Reporter

 Moshoeshoe Monare

Web Link

www.thestar.co.za

 

Party wants to set up strict guidelines for business dealings

The ANC is deeply concerned about the endemic corrupt and unethical behaviour among its members and leaders in business.

In a draft discussions document prepared for its upcoming policy conference, it also acknowledged that its internal disciplinary systems are ineffective and that its name is being tarnished.

Its national executive committee (NEC) - the highest decision-making body between conferences - has raised concerns that "the ANC does not act timeously or firmly in cases of corruption, even when comrades have admitted guilt. A consequence of this is the embarrassment of people being arrested while in office".

The ANC says new regulations for leaders and members who are not in government must be "punitive, be applied timeously and firmly, and thus become a deterrent to deviant behaviour".

The ruling party admits that those caught for corrupt practices are frustrating the organisation by taking advantage of the lengthy judicial process.

"Things drift. Problems are exacerbated rather than contained. The name of the organisation is dragged through the mud.

"Cadres learn ways of dragging issues and make use of the country's legal process to delay, if not frustrate, the movement's own processes.

"We rely exclusively on the disciplinary committee of the movement. The disciplinary committee is not able to be proactive, timeous and decisive. Cadres have made creative use of the concept of innocent until proven guilty and other constructs of the legal system such as due process," says the draft document, titled "Revolutionary Morality and Ethics of the ANC".

The ANC says that despite having set up institutions such as the Public Protector *1, and formulated laws and regulations to curb corruption, there were still loopholes in dealing with members who do not hold public office.

"The challenge is enforcement. We have relied on various mechanisms for encouraging our ethical rules. For instance, the executive has got its own methods and sanctions that are located in the cabinet and the public service.

"Parliament has its own process. All these enforcement instruments are not in the hands of the ANC, even though the movement may have significant influence in them.

"That means that there is no ANC mechanism for dealing with breaches. Often the ANC becomes a spectator in processes that involve its members and is unable to act timeously and in a manner that reflect its own political morality," the organisation says.

The document is expected to be discussed by the ANC NEC, which is meeting in Johannesburg this weekend.

The ANC says there is unhappiness about the issue of corruption and unethical behaviour.

"It is clear from the soundbites of NEC members in various discussions that we have not succeeded in taming the beast *2 of unethical behaviour in our ranks. There is some unhappiness in the public, among our members, in the NEC, the national working committee and the officials.

"Why is there such unhappiness? What has gone wrong? It would appear that the public institutions we set up and the political discussions and resolutions we have adopted since the Mafikeng conference have not been adequate to deal with this problem.

"If this trend continues, then the real casualty will become the character of the ANC, jeopardising its historic mission," the document states.

However, the ANC shifts the blame to an endemic societal "culture of short cuts or beating the system" and says these problems are "symptomatic of a breakdown in our political culture".

"Too often entrepreneurship is confused with adventurism of the pillaging sort *2. For these elements, the ANC becomes attractive because of the potential legitimacy and business opportunity it can bring."

The organisation says it will develop guidelines for its members and leaders, especially its top six officials, modelled along the executive ethics rules that regulate cabinet members' business and other interests.

For government officials and public servants, the ANC suggests a cooling-off period to prevent them from pursuing business interests in the same field, but proposes "adequate compensation" for loss of opportunity *3.

With acknowledgements to Moshoeshoe Monare and The Star.


*1       More often than not, the Government Protector.


*2      The ANC's BEE is adventurism of the pillaging sort.


*3      Now this is dangerous.

Declare a 7-year cooling-off period and pay the subject thereof with tax-payers' money until their entrepreneurship becomes less confused.

This is pillage.