CADRE DEPLOYMENT: Suspension of HODs based on ANC’s Step Aside likely to end in court

Staff Reporter

Bloemfontein – The African National Congress (ANC) in Free State Province is ducking and diving over a resolution to implement a step aside on government employees who are facing criminal charges is likely to end up in court be it via the officials’ concern or the Democratic Alliance.

According to the ANC in Free State, this is a corruption mechanism and there is a court case in North Gauteng High Court around the ruling party’s cadre deployment which was also trashed by Chief Justice Zondo in his State Capture report. In the trial within a trial, the DA won round after the court

Cyril Ramaphosa in his capacity as ANC President said the ANC is accused number 1 in a newsletter and said the ruling party will not stand alone in the dock.

“The ANC may not stand alone in the dock, but it does stand as accused number one.”

He continued.
“To address corruption in the ANC, we must:

• Implement without delay the resolutions of our 54th National Conference on dealing with corruption, including that:

Every cadre accused of, or reported to be involved in, corrupt practices must account to the Integrity Commission immediately or face disciplinary processes.

People who fail to give an acceptable explanation or to voluntarily step down while they face disciplinary, investigative or prosecutorial procedures should be summarily suspended.”
The controversial rule saw very few ANC deployees asked to step aside including former Ethekwini heavyweight and Zuma ally, Zandile Gumede, ANC MP Bongani Bongo, and Limpopo treasurer Danny Msiza.

Limpopo PEC sought by the Limpopo province after the PEC said it was confronted with a challenge regarding Msiza, who had “raised legitimate concerns on the interpretation of the NEC resolution in so far as it pertains to his peculiar circumstances”.

In KwaZulu-Natal, the PEC was also faced with the principle of “double jeopardy” in the case of former ANC deputy chair Mike Mabuyakhulu.
The above-mentioned were officials in the party and to this end, not a single government employee facing criminal charges has been suspended on step-aside resolution.

It is not clear if the Free State Provincial Government will subject its HODs via an integrity commission or how they will arrive at the decision to suspend HODs, Supply Chain Officials, and any employee including those who are not ANC employees against innocent until proven guilty principle applied universally.

In other news, the Free State High Court will today hear the contempt of court matter involving expelled ANC councilors who were accused of voting with the opposition.

The ANC was granted rule nisi.

In our next article we will publish legal advice sought on the basis of party policy over governance.

Jabu Mbalula, spokesperson for ANC in Free State referred us to the media statement and did not respond to direct questions we posed including if the administrators involved are ANC members in good standing.

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