Polokwane - Although the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) national executive committee is yet to formally meet and discuss the first part of the State Capture report released this week, it has cautioned ANC members not to use it against one another.
ANCWL secretary-general, Matuba Meokgo, says natural justice must be allowed to take its course and members should not jump the gun.
Matuba said this during a sideline interview with IOL at the Old Peter Mokaba stadium in Polokwane where the ANC held its January 8 statement rally on Saturday.
The issue of the damning report, which even implicated the ANC and some of its members, was the topic of the day as almost all prominent speakers mentioned it and demanded that action be taken against those implicated.
Commenting on the report and its recommendations, ANC President, Cyril Ramaphosa said: “We will put in place to process any part of the commission’s report that pertains to the organisation, its employees or members. We will also look at how the commission’s recommendations can help to enhance the fundamental renewal and the rebuilding of our movement.”
Cosatu president, Zingiswa Losi, said that all the recommendations made in the first part of the state capture commission report should be implemented without fail.
She added that they did not want the report to go to waste as a lot of taxpayers’ money was spent to produce it.
Blade Nzimande, general-secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the ANC's alliance partner, said those implicated should not be left unscathed.
But the ANCWL is seemingly treading with caution on the matter.
“We will allow all the processes to take their course. As an organisation what we will then do is after consultations and discussions we will communicate the women’s league position. But in all instances, we were supporting the issue of the Zondo commission and we want justice for all and it shouldn't be a selective process,” Meokgo said.
Moreover, she said added that processes must be applied accordingly so as to ensure that no one would feel targeted using the commission’s report.
“We believe in fair justice as the women’s league and we also believe that if there are issues that implicate other comrades, there would be a snail process that follows to implement the recommendations. Also politically, we would like to caution our comrades not to use anything against others.”
Earlier, at the same rally, ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe clarified his contentious comments, saying that the damning Zondo Commission’s enquiry into the state capture and corruption report should be used to rebuild the battered governing party and not to prosecute party leaders.
He insisted that he meant party members should not use it to purge one another.
He noted that the issue of whether to prosecute was the NPA's decision.
Political Bureau