There are many Brown Mogotsis inside the ANC.
The Madlanga commission heard testimony from crime intelligence head Dumisani Khumalo this week illustrating how Mogotsi, an ANC member from the North West, used his position in the party and connection to senior leaders and the police ministry to compel attempted murder accused Vusimuzi Matlala to bankroll his entertainment and party meetings.
The ANC is well aware of it but mostly turns a blind eye to this pernicious grouping, which is omnipresent up and down its ranks.
An ANC councillor and Johannesburg MMC, Sithembiso Zungu, is under investigation over links to the construction mafia. News24 reports that he received a housing tender in his own ward. He had allegedly demanded “facilitation fees” from a construction company building houses in the area ahead of his election as councillor.
The investigation revealed that Zungu had received 29 payments from the construction company, with amounts ranging from R1,000 to R10,000 over a year-long period. Yet Zungu remains front and centre in the ANC-led executive appointed by Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero, in a tender-heavy portfolio focused on infrastructure.
Another high-level example is the multimillion-rand asbestos scandal involving the ANC’s former secretary-general, Ace Magashule. Despite news reports and allegations of corruption against Magashule spanning many years, the ANC elected him as its second most powerful national official in 2017, in charge of controlling the organisation daily.
Magashule, who left to form his own political party after his suspension and eventual expulsion from the ANC, is on trial for corruption. In July the court heard that he received R10m shortly after tenderpreneur Edwin Sodi’s company was paid R230m in 2013 to remove asbestos roofing from houses in the Free State.
Magashule, Sodi and 11 others are charged with corruption linked to the R255m tender. Sodi is connected to top ANC leaders and bankrolls the party. The ANC has been trying unsuccessfully to rid itself of people using the organisation for personal gain, but its attempts have been limp-wristed.
They have also been stymied by factionalism and a weak criminal justice system, which has had little success in prosecuting high-profile corruption cases. Current secretary-general Fikile Mbalula had harsh words for Mogotsi and his ilk on Thursday.
“Brian Mogotsi is a reflection of a bad ANC member, if he is, because he is implicated in siphoning money in the name of the ANC. The ANC can’t pride itself on such people... they will face the full wrath of the ANC,” he said, conceding that Mogotsi was “just but one” and there were others who “behave like that”.
“We know money has been exchanging hands, and characters such as those who claim ANC membership and don’t understand what it means to be a member of the ANC have done deeds that are beyond imagination. I can tell you we will never associate ourselves with characters like Mogotsi.”
In a media briefing on Thursday, Mbalula emphasised transparent lifestyle audits, strengthening the party’s integrity commission and harsher action against those implicated in corruption. The trouble is, many of its leaders are also implicated, and it therefore cannot act against wrongdoing in lower party structures.
Mbalula’s comments came as Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi is in a battle with the DA over the release of forensic reports — 177 of them — and lifestyle audits, which he refuses to release publicly in their totality.
In addition, neither of these interventions to address corruption is new. The idea of an integrity commission first emerged in Gauteng in 2014. If such interventions worked, Gauteng would not be engulfed in corruption scandals.
This week the Special Investigating Unit revealed an insidious network that looted more than R2bn from Tembisa Hospital, with one of the syndicates headed by Hangwani Maumela, who has family links to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The only way to address the problem in the ANC is to fix the criminal justice system, and the Madlanga inquiry provides an opportunity for this. Whether the ANC-led government will have the stomach to follow through with its ultimate recommendations will truly test its will to tackle the pernicious class in its ranks.
• Marrian is a Business Day editor at large.
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