In the aftermath of the unfortunate handling of my letter of resignation from the ANC by the office of the secretary-general (SG), senior officials of the ANC Veterans League facilitated a meeting between SG Fikile Mbalula and myself with the view to ironing out our differences and, more importantly, exploring the possibility of my going back to the ANC.
While I have rescinded my resignation, I have not retracted the four-page letter that explains my deep concerns about the state of the ANC and its manifest failure to deal with corruption within our own ranks.
It stands as a call to conscience for individuals who have allowed money and power to control their decisions, and a call for all South Africans to accept that the country is in a profound and systemic crisis.
It is a crisis that will continue after the elections regardless of how voters cast their ballots. Addressing this crisis will require the commitment and ingenuity of people from all political persuasions.
My resignation from the ANC was never simply a matter of having changed my mind about the party’s policies because another contender for power had persuaded me that they had better policies.
It doesn’t require sophisticated political analysis to predict what will happen to the ANC’s electoral chances if they fail to exclude people tainted with corruption. It is my hope that my resignation did have the effect of shocking the ANC leadership into doing what ought to have been glaringly obvious: do not allow anyone tainted with corruption to accept nomination as a public representative.
The abuse of legal processes to either evade accountability or intimidate those who speak truth to power has to stop
In a statement released to the media on December 14, the SG of the ANC stated: “We are determined that only members whose reputations are beyond reproach will be included in our list of candidates for parliament and the provincial legislatures. This means that those implicated by the Zondo commission will not be included in our lists unless their names have been cleared by the integrity commission.”
As I have stated in several interviews since my resignation letter entered the public domain, the straw that broke my 63-year relationship with the ANC was its leadership’s lethargic approach to this matter. In going back to the ANC, I was accepting the gauntlet thrown down by my veteran colleagues, who enjoined me to participate with them in ensuring the realisation of this critical objective. We are entering the uncharted era of coalition governance at national level with no demonstrable discipline by political parties to play in this field. As a rule, I shun the role of bystander or armchair critic. I rejoin the Veterans League as an ordinary member holding no office.
I foresee a future role of service to the people of South Africa as a whole. This is what I have done in my career as a public servant, and I have no desire to become an elected public representative. My name will not be found on any party list either. I would like to see parliament rise from the ashes as an assembly of people with a paramount commitment to the constitution, good governance, and the supremacy of the rule of law.
Finally — to state another fact that ought to be obvious — the supremacy of the rule of law requires that the South African Police Service, the National Prosecuting Authority, members of the judiciary and everyone in law enforcement act without fear, favour or prejudice. Everyone suspected, accused, or convicted of any criminal offence must be treated as equal before the law.
The breach of that principle is no better illustrated than by the appalling way in which whistleblowers are being treated in South Africa today. The abuse of legal processes to either evade accountability or intimidate those who speak truth to power has to stop.
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