Party spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri raised eyebrows when she suggested that the ANC would not have its financial woes if it was corrupt. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri raised eyebrows when she insisted that the party was not corrupt, although some of its members might be.
Asked about the party’s financial woes, Bhengu-Motsiri responded: “I always say that if the ANC was a corrupt party — not individuals — we would not be poor.”
“We would be tapping into the resources of the state as a governing party,” she told a media briefing on the sidelines of the party’s national general council (NGC) in Boksburg.
This was after workers at the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters protested over their unpaid salaries on the first day of the NGC, the latest signal of financial challenges that saw the sheriff seize some of the party’s property over unpaid debt.
While delivering the ANC political overview earlier this week, President Cyril Ramaphosa said corruption, criminality and factionalism would not be tolerated in the organisation.
Political analysts said the scourge was endemic within the party and challenged Bhengu-Motsiri’s assertion of “a clean ANC”, saying there was no distinction between individuals and the organisation.
The ANC was perceived as “synonymous with corruption, because it has not addressed the elephant in the room — the institutionalisation of corruption”, said Ntsikelelo Breakfast, an associate professor at Nelson Mandela University’s department of history and political studies.
“Corruption is holding back a country from promoting development, with the ANC sometimes deploying to government people who have a history of unethical behaviour – a smack in the face of the electorate. The issue of fighting against corruption is all talk and no action,” he said.
Breakfast cited several disgraced ANC cadres who have been redeployed into government and party structures, with some assisting in election campaigning.
Bhengu-Motsiri’s attempt to differentiate between the individual and party misconduct risks downplaying systemic problems that have allowed corruption to flourish, said Sethulego Matebesi, a professor at the Free State University’s department of humanities and sociology.
“The party leadership must take a collective responsibility to strengthen governance and accountability mechanisms — if they are going to take this particular route about individualising corruption and misconduct,” Matebisi said.
He said Ramaphosa’s frankness about corruption, criminality and factionalism within the ANC was “a necessary acknowledgement of the party’s internal challenges”.
“The real test in what the president has said will depend on the constant and transparent actions to root out these elements — restoring integrity within the ANC,” Matebisi added.
Political economist Dale McKinley also pilloried Bhengu-Motsiri’s comments.
“The ANC cannot pick and choose when it wants to deal with people collectively and when it wants to deal with them as individuals. In that case, the ANC is corrupt in the sense that there is a huge amount of corruption committed by party cadres, deployees and officials wherever they are — something which has been acknowledged,” he said.
“The message to the ANC national spokesperson is: stop beating around the bush and tackle the problem properly – otherwise people won’t take you seriously.”
Asked by the Mail & Guardian to respond to the criticism, Bhengu-Matsiri insisted that “you certainly can divorce corrupt individuals from the party or a company – something which is standard.
“Should somebody at Standard Bank get involved in corrupt practices, you will never say Standard Bank is a corrupt bank. We insist that the ANC is not a corrupt organisation. Individuals found to be involved in corrupt activities must face the full might of the law,” she said.
She also predicted that the party was on course for victory at next year’s local government elections, despite its support slumping to 40% at the May 2024 national and provincial vote, which forced Ramaphosa to form a government of national unity with nine other parties.
“The ANC is well-prepared to fight the 2026 election. We already have an election strategy. Our teams are on the ground and also participating in the by-election processes in different parts of our country,” Bhengu-Motsiri said.
“We have also taken all our potential candidates into the political training that is required.
The ANC electoral committee is currently focused on a very rigorous candidates’ selection process. We will claw back, and we are able to do so – forging all our arsenal to ensure that we win the election.”
But analysts expect another poor showing from the former liberation movement next year.
“It is unlikely that the ANC will claw back all that support it lost. It might be possible that it gets back some. There may probably be people who will say that things are better than they were previously,” McKinley said.
“Depending on the area, they might claw back in small amounts. You are likely to see ANC support in Limpopo and in the Eastern Cape, where the party is quite dominant. In places like Gauteng, KZN and the Western Cape, where there is a lot of competition — where the ANC has done badly in past polls — I doubt there will be a clawing back of that support.”