‘Ramaphosa’s testimony proves we were right about BEE,’ says FF Plus

As President Cyril Ramaphosa makes his second appearance at the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture on Thursday, the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) says he must expose corruption.

This is after Ramaphosa told the commission on Wednesday the ANC cadre deployment strategy had fallen victim to opportunism and factionalism.

“It is the truth, we have had to deal with these issues, careerism, opportunism and factionalism. And some of these deployments have caused a ruckus in the ANC because we are a living organisation. In the end, we have to manage all of that,” Ramaphosa said.

WATCH LIVE: Ramaphosa returns to Zondo Commission for ANC testimony

His comments on cadre deployment confirmed the position of the FF Plus that affirmative action is not acceptable and should be abolished, said party leader Pieter Groenewald.

“Affirmative action is not based on merit and the only solution to get the civil service right is to make merit the only criterion for appointments. The best people should be hired to do the job regardless of their skin colour,” said Groenewald.

As for Bosasa and the fact that the ANC had an election office in that company’s headquarters, it is meaningless for President Ramaphosa to say now that it was wrong and should not have happened. These are empty words.

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Groenewald said corruption does not only arise from cadre deployment, but also black economic empowerment (BEE), which it says is instrumental in creating opportunities for corruption through tender fraud.

“State-owned enterprises are part of this by accepting inflated tenders under the guise of promoting BEE.

The Zondo commission should drop the emphasis on the application of BEE where there are numerous examples of this type of stripping, such as Eskom’s purchase of tube lights at R900 each, which would cost barely R63 at a hardware store.

“The Zondo commission will have to ask tough questions about this if it is serious about fighting corruption,” he said.

DA leader John Steenhuisen called on the commission not to allow Ramaphosa to “dodge” accountability.

Ramaphosa directly oversaw the deployment of compromised individuals such as Brian Molefe, Shaun Abrahams, Arthur Fraser, Lucky Montana, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, Dudu Myeni, and Busisiwe Mkhwebane,” Steenhuisen said following Ramaphosa’s testimony.