FULL LETTER: Ramaphosa calls out ANC over COVID-19 corruption
I am sure that you are aware that across the nation there is a sense of anger and disillusionment at reports of corruption in our response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Corruption robs our people of billions that could be used for their benefit. Conference further said that the lack of integrity perceived by the public has seriously damaged the ANC’s image, the people’s trust in the ANC, our ability to occupy the moral high ground and our position as leader of society.
We have used competition policy to tackle excessive pricing and abuse of market dominance in the private sector, particularly during the state of disaster where several firms have been found guilty of illegally inflating prices of things like face masks and sanitisers. Apartheid was both morally and materially corrupt. Even as its laws enabled the theft of resources that rightly belonged to the people of South Africa, there were many in the administration, in state companies, in bantustans and in business who flouted even those corrupt laws to enrich themselves.
The 54th National Conference was a seminal moment in the history of our movement. In much the same way as it had done at the historic Morogoro Conference nearly 50 years earlier, the leadership and membership of the ANC had to confront its severe weaknesses and embark on a programme of renewal. For more than 26 years, the ANC has been in government at a national level and in most provinces and municipalities. This has meant that leadership positions in the ANC have been seen by some as the most direct route to, in the first instance, employment and, in the second instance, to influence in the award of tenders and the distribution of other government resources.They see how this deviant behaviour goes unchecked and allows unscrupulous and sometimes criminal elements to flourish.
As we have seen during the COVID response, there are local ANC leaders who have used food parcels meant for the poor to buy political favours from those people in the branch or broader community who they rely on for their positions. These practices quite literally take food out of the mouths of the poor.
We must have the political courage and the honesty to acknowledge that ANC leaders, public representatives and members have on numerous occasions been implicated in such forms of corruption. • People who fail to give an acceptable explanation or to voluntarily step down while they face disciplinary, investigative or prosecutorial procedures should be summarily suspended.
• Ensure transparency and accountability in procurement. We need to build on the ‘open tender’ processes employed in certain areas and make use of technology and artificial intelligence as a standard practice to tackle corruption across all of government. In the end, we will not stop corruption within our ranks unless we deepen the ethical consciousness of our members and, particularly, our leaders.
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