The United Democratic Movement has accused the ruling African National Congress of a ”staggering lack of accountability,” following a report in the Mail & Guardian that its youth league (ANCYL) was involved in large number of business deals.
Holomisa said it was ”simply unacceptable that a political organisation could have business interests in companies that benefited from government tenders”.
The Mail & Guardian reported on Friday that ANCYL ”seemed in part to have become a vehicle for elites and a reference point for businesses seeking to engage political capital”.
Holomisa said: ”Clearly this arrangement is designed by the ANCYL as a way to peddle influence at a price. If members of the ANC want to go into the corporate world, they should do so, but the ANC cannot use government influence to get deals that are funded by the taxpayer. That is patently immoral.”
He said that while the ANCYL seemed to have developed some skill at enriching themselves, the youth of the country still wondered when the Umsombuvo Fund was going to start distributing the millions that lay dormant in its accounts.
”These are the type of abuses that must be exposed and that the ANC should be held accountable for. This is what the UDM has done since its launch, and this is what me and my colleagues will continue to do in the next five years.”
Holomisa was speaking in Johannesburg at the introduction of the party’s top twelve candidates for the upcoming elections.
The candidates are Ntopile Marcel Kganyago, Malizole Diko, Martin Stephens, Nonhlanhia Clarlbel Nkabinde, George Tembela Madikiza, Jacobus Tapedi Maseka, Thabsile J Msiza, Agnes Qikani, Desmond Padiachey, Kushca J Tlhoaela, Hendrik Lombard and Brian Hermez.
The UDM, which launched its KwaZulu-Natal election manifesto in January, will hold a rally in Bushbuckridge in Limpopo on Sunday.
Inside the ANC Youth League’s business empire