South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday said the governing party executive has decided that all party members formally charged with corruption and other serious crimes must step aside from their posts, reported Reuters. The decision was announced during the party’s weekend meeting.
In recent weeks, the African National Congress (ANC) has been lashes with several reports of corruption during the coronavirus crisis, with state investigators probing irregularities in government tenders worth 5 billion rand ($297 million).
In a statement, the South African president said the ruling party ordered members who are formally charged with corruption to “immediately step aside from all leadership positions in the ANC, in legislatures and other government structures pending the finalization of their cases”.
Ramaphosa said the ANC will make it mandatory for leaders to make regular declarations of financial interests, and develop guidelines for ANC leaders and their families doing business with government and public entities.
The South African government has already set up a ministerial committee to investigate alleged corruption in state tenders earlier this month.
Reports of alleged deals between government officials and companies providing medical equipment and food aid parcels to the poor have resulted in an outrage among the public.
Last month, South Africa’s anti-corruption watchdog said it was investigating irregularities in these contracts, the latest in a series of high-profile corruption scandals involving politically connected individuals.
The reports claim that the government has given contracts to service providers for personal protection equipment (PPE) at inflated prices. In other instances, PPE has not been delivered at all or contracts have been given to companies and people connected to the government and the ANC.
President Ramaphosa, who is himself stung by allegations of graft during the COVID-19 pandemic, wrote to ANC members earlier this month saying its “leaders stand accused of corruption” and that the ANC “does stand as the accused number one”.
