With or without step-aside, ANC has mechanisms to deal with the corrupt, says Kgalema Motlanthe

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As delegates at the ANC policy conference debate whether the step-aside rule should be repealed or scrapped to make way for leaders whose political ambitions have been affected, former ANC president Kgalema Motlanthe has poured cold water on the endeavours. 

In an interview with the media on the sidelines of the conference on Saturday Montlathe, who has been charged with the responsibility of the ANC’s elections committee, told journalists that even if the step-aside rule was reversed, the party’s constitution makes provisions for members convicted of serious crimes to be expelled and have their membership withdrawn. 

The comments, however, are unlikely to deter influential provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo from going ahead with the plan, which they have stated publicly on numerous occasions is their goal.   

“The constitution of the ANC has a whole section that  defines what constitutes  offences  which trigger disciplinary proceedings against any member. The problem is implementation and, as you know, discipline is always effective if it is underpinned by consistency,” he said.

Motlanthe added that the leadership of the organisation needed to be decisive when  handling disciplinary processes and ensure they were strictly adhered to.

Since July, regional leaders in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Limpopo have cried foul over the step-aside rule, which has mostly affected detractors of President Cyril Ramaphosa. 

ANC leaders affected by the regulation, while unable to participate in the policy conference, will still exert their influence via delegates who support their attempts to have the step-aside rule amended, reviewed or scrapped. 

In 2017, supporters of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma went into the policy conference at Nasrec with a package of resolutions on nationalisation, expropriation of land without compensation and white monopoly capital, which were aimed at weakening Ramaphosa’s chances of ascending to the party’s top job.

The step-aside rule will be used to serve the same purpose.

The Mail & Guardian had previously reported that a late-night meeting between provincial leaders to boost the numbers of those who would call for a repeal of the contentious resolution was held on Friday evening. 

The insiders said that at the meeting — attended by leaders from KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and parts of the Eastern Cape and North West — there was “a strong view” that while the rule could not be defeated at the conference, delegates should call for its guidelines to be reversed this weekend. 

The provincial leaders believe that the regulation is being applied selectively against critics of Ramaphosa and that the modification to apply it only to those who are charged before a court of law — as opposed to those facing corruption allegations — is a misinterpretation of what the delegates at the 54th national conference in 2017 intended when it was passed.

The ANC was poised to also deliberate on the outcomes of Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s state capture report which implicated over 200 of its leaders. 

Shortly after Zondo released his last findings in June, the ANC formed a commission headed by its policy head Jeff Radebe and justice minister Ronald Lamola to study the document and make recommendations. 

Radebe recommended that all those implicated in the report — including national chairperson Gwede Mantashe, among others — would have to subject themselves to the integrity committee, a body of elders which has been rendered toothless as the national executive committee seldom follows its recommendations. 

Integrity committee head George Mashaba has told M&G that the committee needed the right skills and resources when interrogating ANC members. 

ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile told the media that the ANC would look into resourcing the committee. 

Meanwhile, Motlanthe said that the integrity committee said that it needed to be given more authority. This after ANC general manager and NEC member Febe Potgieter told the media that the ANC would discuss enshrining the committee in its constitution to ensure that its recommendations were binding. 

“They have no authority to ensure that the national executive committee actually acts on their recommendations, that is something that may have to be strengthened, by giving them original authority. They are a substructure of the NEC. I think they need original authority from the conference itself,” said Potgieter.