Justice Minister Penuell Maduna says he will not stand for re-election into the government next year. In an interview with the Sunday Independent newspaper, Maduna said he would serve in the African National Congress in any other capacity, ”even as a floor sweeper”.
The minister’s statement followed a series of allegations against him including nepotism and corruption in his department.
Maduna also said that the ANC was being torn apart by allegations that National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka had been an apartheid spy.
”The ANC is hurting bad,” he said.
”But I don’t care anymore what this (battle) is doing. It has already done a lot of damage. Families are suffering.”
However, Maduna said he was not quitting his current post.
”No I am not quitting. I will serve my full term but I will not stand again.”
Maduna’s decision could make him the first victim of the escalating political row sparked by the Scorpions investigation into whether Deputy President Jacob Zuma solicited a R500 000 bribe from a French arms company bidding in the multi-billion rand arms deal.
Maduna said he had promised his family that he would quit his high profile position.
”I told the president, my family is saying I should resign because they cannot take it any longer,” he said.
President Thabo Mbeki’s spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said it was too early for the president to comment but ”he has taken note of what Maduna is saying”.
When asked whether Maduna spoke to the President, Khumalo said he had no reason not to believe that Maduna had spoken to Mbeki about his decision.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance on Sunday called on Maduna to step down immediately, even if on temporary leave of office.
DA MP Sheila Camerer said it increasingly looked as if Maduna would be the first casualty of an ”in-fighting battle” within the African National Congress.
Camerer said on Sunday his ”extraordinary threat to quit his post” showed the measure of crises besetting the ANC and his justice department.
”There is no doubt about the extent of the division in the ANC,” she said.
The appointment of the Hefer Commission seemingly only served to polarise two camps within the party further, Camerer maintained.
”The ‘accused’ in the Zuma camp are increasingly coming out of the woodwork to make accusations against their ‘accusers’ in the Ngcuka and Maduna camp,” she continued.
Camerer said Zuma, Ngcuka and Maduna should resign … or at least step aside until the commission had completed its work and reported. If they refused to do so, Mbeki should force them to take temporary leave of office.
The timing of the favouritism allegations against Maduna ”inevitably leads to suspicions that they may be part of the same fight to death in the ANC”, Camerer alleged. – Sapa