South African President Thabo Mbeki has reinforced his message that his administration and the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), is not in the business of tolerating corruption. He says his ruling party will be providing “clear guidelines” governing its behaviour in the future.
In his regular Friday internet column, ANC Today, on the ruling party’s website, he refers to the June 16 Youth Day — which honours the youths who died on that day in 1976 in the fight against apartheid.
He uses his message — in the week in which he axed his Deputy President Jacob Zuma — to remind the organisation that “on many occasions before, our movement has pointed to the fact that because we are now free, membership of our organisation no longer entails the sacrifices that earlier generations had to make.
“It has therefore spoken out against those who join our ranks to abuse their membership to seek personal gain, rather than serve the people,” he said, without referring to any particular individual.
He goes on to say: “It (the movement) has called for the continued inculcation among all our members of the value system that Anton Lembede and the founders of the ANC Youth League stood for, which was so courageously upheld by the youth who participated in the Soweto uprising.”
He was referring to the words Lembede — who died in 1947 — wrote in 1945: “Morality is the soul of society. Decay and decline of morals brings about the decay and decline of society — so history teaches.”
Mbeki notes that the ANC national executive committee had on May 27 and 28 this year, addressed this moral challenge. It said it would act with firmness and resolve “against corruption within the organisation and against any members of the ANC found guilty of any misdemeanour”.
It promised to reinforce in practice the long-standing and defining values of the movement — service to the people, selflessness, honesty and integrity.
He also noted that the committee would “further elaborate through clear organisational guidelines to ANC leaders and members issues of participation of public officials in business, matters of conflict of interest, abuse of power … in the context of the ANC constitution, existing policies, and the values and traditions of the movement.” – I-Net Bridge