Will Kader Asmal’s new disciplinary committee be able to curtail the ‘corrupt and hungry elite’ that has put the ANC into a tailspin? Eddie Koch reports
KEY members of the ANC are holding thumbs that a new high-powered disciplinary committee, headed by Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Kader Asmal, will be able to pull the party out of the tailspin it has been tossed into by the Winnie Mandela debacle and other corruption scandals.
The ANC’s inability to contain activities of what one member calls “a corrupt and hungry black elite” inside the movement reached crisis proportions this week as Mandela defiantly challenged ANC leadership over a series of allegations that she has used her ministerial position for self-enrichment.
The ANC national executive committee (NEC) met two weekends ago and urgently nominated five senior members to sit on a disciplinary committee that will enforce the organisation’s code of conduct.
Asmal, described by one source as the ANC’s “moral policeman”, was appointed as chairman. Two other ministers, Alec Irwin and Nkosazana Zuma, sit on the committee along with ANC stalwarts Ruth Mampati, Penuel Maduna and Wilton Mkwayi.
Sources in Asmal’s office say the minister is determined to turn the committee into an effective mechanism to stamp out irregular activities that have been tearing at the ANC in recent months. The committee has already met to discuss allegations that Rocky Malebane-Metsing used his office to ensure a multimillion-rand agricultural loan and it played a key role in having the ANC firebrand removed from public office in the North-West province.
The creation of the committee is designed to put some teeth into a document that was vaunted as a symbol of the organisation’s commitment to clean government when adopted by the NEC in November last year — but effectively failed to prevent the scandals that have caused the ANC to lose the moral high ground around issues of state corruption in recent months.
Under the heading “clean government”, the code states that all ANC members elected to the national assembly, the senate or the provincial parliaments “shall at all times observe practices that are free from all forms of
It adds: “Government office or parliamentary posts shall not be used to distribute favours or patronage nor to seek or obtain any personal fortune or favour.”
Other key provisions of the code of conduct oblige all elected members of these assemblies to:
* Declare all assets and describe all positions outside parliament — including board membership and directors posts — from which they derive financial gain. “In particular, they shall disclose all consultancies, shareholdings and directorships for any form of pecuniary benefit received by them or their family from an external source.”
* Register any gifts which exceed the value of R200 in a register to be set up in the office of the ANC secretary general. This register will include all other financial details in respect of elected members and will be available to the NEC for scrutiny.
* Refrain from acting as a lobbyist or public relations consultant for any agency or company that operates outside parliament.
“Ministers of the national government, premiers and provincial executive councillors shall not play any active role in profit-making institutions. They shall surrender directorships and their shares shall be held in ‘blind trusts’,” it adds.
Mandela’s recent involvement in a range of commercial ventures are clearly in breach of this clause — and will provide a vital test of the efficacy of the new
All members of the ANC are required to sign the code. Refusal to do so, and breaches of its ethics, provide grounds for instant dismissal from the government or parliament.
Asmal’s determination to put teeth into his new committee is reflected in a speech he made to parliament soon after he was nominated to head the committee: “I direct these remarks to you, my brothers and sisters. We should cure the problems the previous order has left us, and not become part of that system which we inherited.”
“Corruption impedes the government’s ability to deliver. It is therefore essentially a reconstruction and development issue … There should therefore be no abuse of office for personal gain or, as the ANC’s code of conduct lays down, no elected member shall use his or her position to court or demand any form of favour.”
Wilmot James, executive director of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), told the Weekly Mail & Guardian the committee would provide a huge boost for the ANC’s effort to curb the renegades in its ranks.
But he noted that the code suffers from two serious defects: it is silent on the issue of members who have been involved in criminal acts — “a complex issue given the way crime and politics have been intertwined in South Africa’s history” — and it does not have legislative backing to ensure compliance with its
“The code is a useful start, but it is absolutely vital that it be adapted and passed into law by parliament so that it covers all holders of political office at national and provincial levels.”
A key flaw is that the code will have to be implemented by a political party against members who sometimes carry support from powerful constituencies within the organisation — a dilemma graphically demonstrated in the Winnie Mandela case.
“It is precisely for this reason that such a code needs to be legislated in parliament and enforced by statutory bodies in a non-party political way,” he said. “Political parties will thereby be freed from the internal dynamics that will inevitably affect their efforts at imposing discipline.”
Another question around the code and its disciplinary procedures is whether hearings will be open to the public. Sources inside the ANC say the party will press hard for the code to become the basis for national legislation that will cover all state officials. But there is strong resistance to the idea of opening internal disciplinary hearings to the public.