The ruling African National Congress should amend its municipal councillors’ oath to include a penalty for non-compliance, the opposition Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday.
Failure to do so renders the ANC’s stated commitment to fighting corruption, maladministration and mismanagement mere rhetoric, chief whip Douglas Gibson told reporters in Cape Town.
”The ANC’s election oath, which states that each ANC candidate commits him- or herself to fighting against corruption in any guise or form, is only as strong as the consequences it carries if that councillor fails to abide by his or her promise,” he said.
”It is significant, then, that the ANC’s oath fails to stipulate any consequences or sanctions the party will take against a councillor who fails to uphold the promises he or she makes.”
Gibson challenged ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe to amend the oath and turn it into a binding contract with ”specific and actionable” consequences for councillors found guilty of corruption or breaking the oath.
Asked what such consequences could entail, he cited the DA’s own members’ election pledge that states, in part: ”I understand that should I fail to meet these required levels of performance, I will be removed from office.”
Gibson said the ANC’s anti-corruption municipal election campaign message has been ”completely compromised”. ANC-run municipalities are ”rife” with corruption and service delivery is being hampered by maladministration and mismanagement.
”A culture of lavishness, a culture of luxury, a culture of entitlement has overtaken the former freedom fighters.”
He also cited recent claims of the Tsantsabane municipality in the Northern Cape having unlawfully contributed to the ANC’s election campaign, and Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s taxpayer-funded holiday trip to the United Arab Emirates last month.
”Instead of reading about strong action against corruption, every day South Africans are forced to read about another councillor, another member of Parliament or another deputy president who has abused his or her position and not had to face any consequences.”
While President Thabo Mbeki has taken the commendable step of dismissing his corruption-accused former deputy, Jacob Zuma, he has failed to deal with corruption within the party.
”Many South Africans suspect that had Jacob Zuma been the president’s key ally and not his arch-rival, he would still be deputy president of South Africa today.”
Gibson criticised the decision to invite Zuma to the opening of Parliament next month, which he said was a decision of the ANC in Parliament not supported by the DA.
”That is a fair indication of a tolerance of a level of behaviour in society, which we think proves that the ANC is just mouthing platitudes about corruption, and is not prepared to deal with it properly.”
Asked about the decision earlier, National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete said: ”It does not matter what I personally, or somebody else, thinks about him. He is a former deputy president; we invite him to the occasion of the State of the Nation address.”
ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama was said to be in a meeting and could not be reached for comment on the DA’s challenge. — Sapa