Return of corruption-accused Zandile Gumede ‘excites’ ANC Women’s League

The ANC Women’s League is “excited” that Zandile Gumede, the party’s eThekwini chairperson, will be among those at the forefront of ANC campaigns in the run-up to this year’s elections — despite the corruption-accused former mayor still being affected by its step-aside rule. 

The league’s president, Sisisi Tolashe, said there was no contradiction in Gumede campaigning for the ANC, despite being asked to step aside years earlier, because the party had now pronounced that it was good for her to campaign again. 

Gumede’s mobilisation skills were called upon because of the strong support she commands in the region, according to Tolashe. 

She said Gumede had always been an exceptional campaigner, and would “benefit” the governing party.  

“At any given time when the ANC brings people into the force in preparations for elections, we will always accept that and be happy about it because it brings more knowledge, especially for comrade Zandile,” said Tolashe. 

Gumede was forced to step aside after she was charged in 2019 for, among other things, fraud, corruption and racketeering relating to a R320  million Durban Solid Waste tender.

She is accused of personally receiving R2 881 350 in kickbacks for ensuring predetermined businesses benefited from city waste contracts. The state has further accused the ANC eThekwini region of receiving a R100 000 “donation” from three of Gumede’s co-accused. The trial is still sitting. 

When the charges were first brought against Gumede, who was then the mayor of eThekwini, the league publicly defended her, despite calls for her removal rapidly escalating. The league said at the time that Gumede should be allowed to continue in her position, and that the calls for her to step aside were being made because she was a woman, and were also an effort to stop her from being re-elected ANC eThekwini chairperson. 

Gumede was re-elected in April 2022, in absentia, because she was affected by the step-aside rule. 

In an interview with the Mail & Guardian last week, Gumede said the ANC pronounced “a long time ago” that she should come back and work for it, adding that she was popular among its followers.

“What is nice in the ANC is that you do what the leaders tell you. When they told me what to do [campaign for the ANC], I made sure that I did that,” Gumede said. “When they say I must take part again, I don’t have a problem and that’s why I am here working again.”

Gumede’s comeback is in stark contrast to the step-aside rule punted by the party, including its president, Cyril Ramaphosa, as being integral to the ANC’s attempts at “renewal”, an effort to change its image from one of entrenched corruption that flourished under the years of former president Jacob Zuma. 

In August 2020, Ramaphosa wrote a letter to ANC branches citing the party as “accused number one” in state capture.

Ramaphosa called on members charged with criminal conduct for corruption and who occupy positions of responsibility in government and in the party to insulate the organisation by stepping aside while their cases are being heard.

The step-aside rule was a resolution taken by the party at its 2017 Nasrec conference. 

The watered-down version later adopted by the ANC’s national executive committee stated that those charged with corruption and other crimes must voluntarily step aside, resolving further that the accused should face its integrity committee.

Insiders said Gumede’s reappearance as a prominent ANC figure in the province was part of attempts to “neutralise” former president Jacob Zuma’s new political formation, the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which aims to cut into the ANC’s KwaZulu-Natal votes. 

Gumede was a staunch Zuma ally during his administration, with the former president saying at the time of the charges being brought against her that he would support her as she had supported him through his (still) ongoing corruption trial. 

Tolashe said members of the ANC were expected to abide by the party’s constitution and all its principles. She said that if the ANC said at a particular time one has to step aside […] there were processes the party would take one through. 

“The ANC has that kind of a rule that says you have done something and you have to step aside, you will step aside. 

“After the ANC has gone through its own process and the ANC feels it’s good that she must be brought back, we will all accept and get excited and appreciate that because it talks more of the force of the ANC that is going to engage in the election,” Tolashe said. 

She said Gumede being brought back did not undermine the step-aside rule as long as the ANC pronounced that she could come back as part of the cadres who would be at the forefront of campaigning for the party.

“I haven’t read anything that talks to her directly but I am saying if the ANC pronounces to say she must be brought back to be part of the people that are going to be in the forefront of the elections, it is fine for me,” Tolashe said.

“It is good for the ANC to have been able to bring her, what becomes a contradiction is the details I am not aware of. 

“I haven’t found time to look closely at what the ANC says. Maybe there’s a condition that has been attached in bringing her or there’s none, I cannot speak on that,” she said.