ANC NEC meeting was much ado about nothing

If ever there was an appropriate political image of present-day South African politics, it was the upside-down and rumpled ANC flag behind President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday as he delivered the closing address of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.

The organisation is clearly in the sort of disarray symbolised by that flag.

The NEC meeting was called to discuss the implementation of the resolutions passed at the watershed Nasrec electoral conference in 2017.

Foremost among these was that those accused of wrongdoing be obliged to step aside from any party or government posts, pending the finalisation of any investigations.

That resolution was seemingly ignored by the party’s own secretary-general, Ace Magashule, who has been charged in connection with alleged corruption in a multimillion asbestos assessment tender in the Free State.

Magashule, supported by others in the faction loyal to former president Jacob Zuma, has refused to step aside and he and his supporters claim there is no legal way the party can force them to do that.

Leaving aside the pertinent observation that an ethical political leader should not have to be forced by law to vacate a position while under suspicion, the refusal by Magashule was apparently a clear defiance of the Nasrec resolution – and a challenge to Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa claimed yesterday that this resolution would be implemented – but then effectively backtracked by saying the details had to be discussed.

At the same time, the issue will again be thrashed out at a meeting of the organisation’s Integrity Commission.

In the end, the NEC meeting was much ado about nothing and Ramaphosa again effectively closed ranks by calling on those who had issues not to air such dirty linen in public and not to attack the ANC.

In other words, ANC über alles. Justice can wait, it seems.

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