Corruption cancer: ANC’s defensive response to social grant fraud exposé

Two teenage students from the University of Stellenbosch, Veer Gosai and Joel Cedras, wrote an article for the activist publication GroundUp in which they exposed massive weaknesses in the department of social development’s online system that processes social relief of distress grant payments.

Last Wednesday, they presented their findings to the parliamentary portfolio committee on social development.

The response of the members of parliament on that committee? Set up an investigation that will look into the issue.

The ANC’s Tshilidzi Munyai reverted to what is the party’s default mode when it comes to corruption: attacking the messenger, questioning the credibility of the students who uncovered the massive fraud happening in the SRD grant system. No surprises there.

The national executive committee of the ANC met over the weekend and part of their discussions were to be on a document on corruption and how it affects the organisation, according to News24.

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The report allegedly states that the ANC’s response to corruption has affected state organs in how they respond to corruption.

“The state investigative units and prosecutorial authorities appear to be weakened by factional battles and are unable to perform their functions effectively.”

This would be funny if it wasn’t sad. That after three decades in power, the ANC finally sees that corruption is a cancer that has eaten through its structures and has, over the years, spread into state organs.

As Tshilidzi’s response to the GroundUp investigation shows, parliament was not spared.

The ANC’s first response to allegations of fraud and corruption is never to stop the rot. It is to defend its officials and investigate while billions are siphoned off by fraudsters.

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There is no need for the ANC to spend too much time on introspection, wasting valuable time and resources on how corruption affects the organisation and government.

That is well documented.

From the time of the arms deal in the late ’90s, right through “I didn’t join the struggle to be poor”, “all of us there in the NEC have smallanyana skeletons in our closets”, state capture, up to and including the looting of covid relief funds in the midst of a devastating pandemic, there is absolutely no need for new documents on that.

The only document that the ANC needs on corruption is how to stop it with immediate effect at all levels of government.

Tshilidzi’s tirade against the students might appear like a knee-jerk response, but it is far from that.

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It is a response in keeping with the organisation’s default mode every time fraud and corruption comes up in the organisation. Defensive.

Phala Phala is never going to go away no matter how hard the president or his aides try to brush it off. That is because of the defensive way in which it was handled.

Paul Mashatile’s relationship with Edwin Sodi will not disappear, either. It is also being handled defensively.

Nomvula Mokonyane’s Bosasa allegations will not be forgotten anytime soon, either. The list goes on and on. The reason why the ANC in its current form cannot address corruption is that the cloud that hangs over the organisation is not hanging over just some people in the organisation, but over the entire organisation.

Tshilidzi will be censured soon. He will be told it’s un-ANC to respond to allegations of fraud and possible corruption in the way that he did. The committee will receive the results of the investigation, but nothing will change because the cancer has spread everywhere.

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