Would ANC tackle corruption, state capture? South Africans believe Cyril Ramphosa and Jacob Zuma may be chips of the same old corrupt ruling block
ANC head of elections Fikile Mbalula said the party realised that state capture caused mistrust between the masses and the ANC. He said‚ however‚ that the establishment of the commission had created some optimism that Ramaphosa would deal broadly with corruption and state capture.
“Now we got a commission that is dealing with issues arising from state capture. People appreciate the fact that something is happening‚” he said.
He said public sentiment towards the party has improved since the start of the commission.
“We are not where it was a year ago‚ where there was denial of state capture‚” Mbalula said.
An ANC leader close to Ramaphosa said the president was the only one who could do damage control.
“Usually the secretary-general would have to articulate the position of the party‚ but in this instance both the SG [Ace Magashule] and his deputy [Jessie Duarte] are implicated in state capture‚” the leader said.
A source close to Ramaphosa said the president wants to be prepared when he appears before the Zondo commission.
The source said the president does not want to present mere hearsay to the commission.
“We will have to find a way to use cabinet minutes to show that just because he was deputy president he was not complicit in these things‚” the source said.
Mbalula compared state capture to a sore where “you can’t clean a sore without going deep into it – just dressing the wound won’t help”.
He added: “Overall our posture is to win back the trust of the people. The barometer of the last election showed there was a trust deficit between us and voters.”
