The ANC has never been serious about fighting corruption

Wednesday, 19 August 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo

The ANC has never been serious about fighting corruption

The ANC is a deeply corrupt and violent organisation. The politicians and their families feed off the suffering of the poor like a plague of locusts. Every budget is an opportunity for someone to become rich, or to become even richer. Money budgeted for the urgent and basic needs of the poor is stolen day after day, and year after year. There are no consequences for the politically connected. They steal from us with impunity. 

Those who have become rich by stealing from the people, especially the poor, show their wealth to the world as if it is something to be proud of. We were made poor by colonialism and apartheid. But the ANC keeps us poor. The ANC steals from us every day and violently attacks us when we occupy land, grow food and build homes and community halls for ourselves and by ourselves.

The politicians murder each other as they fight over this money. They also murder grassroots activists who stand up against corruption. The ANC has become a gangster organisation in Durban. It is no longer a political movement. It is a mafia.

When we first formed our movement in 2005 it was the late John Mchunu, the former chairperson of the ANC in the eThekwini region, who was the mafia boss in the ANC in Durban. It was Mchunu who decided who should get rich and who should remain poor.
A number of people in the media, the police and in government told us, off the record, that Mchunu was behind the armed attack on our movement in the Kennedy Road settlement in 2009.

In 2016 Zandile Gumede took over as the Mayor. She came to Abahlali and admitted that the ANC was behind the 2009 attack and apologised for the attack on behalf of the ANC. She promised to provide 10 000 blankets for Abahlali women.

The blankets never arrived and it soon became clear that she was the new mafia boss. The looting got even worse, and we faced constant political violence from the City, the police and the izinkabi. Gumede followed Mchunu and others and said that our movement was the ‘third force’.

Gumede ran the eThekwini Municipality into the ground. She is currently facing charges for tender fraud of close to R400 million. We all know that this is just a small fraction of the actual fraud that has been committed. The entire tendering system is corrupt. The housing system is corrupted at every level from who gets the tender to build the houses to who provides security on site to how the houses are allocated.

When Gumede was arrested, and then removed as mayor last year there seemed to be some hope that finally, after years of protest around the country, some action was going to be taken against corruption. But the swearing in of Gumede as the Member of the Provincial Legislature shows that the ANC is not serious about getting rid of corruption, and that they will always protect their own.

Provincial ANC spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said that “As a firm believer in women empowerment, the ANC KZN is confident that Cde Gumede, with her experience, is a worthwhile addition to the legislature.” This is an insult to the majority of women. Gumede made herself and her friends very, very rich while keeping the majority of women poor. She sent out armed forces to attack poor women, beat them, insult them, abuse them, rob them and destroy their homes.

We are very clear about the fact that in her time as mayor Gumede was an oppressor. She is no comrade, and no friend to ordinary women.

The ANC continuous to be arrogant while its leaders steal from the poor. They continue to say that as long as their leaders have not been found guilty by a court of law they can be deployed to positions in government. They play this trick on us too when they deny that they have attacked us because there is no case against them when they know very well that the police will not allow us to open cases against them.

Many people in the ANC including its General Secretary have been fingered in corrupt conduct. In many cases the evidence is in the public domain and yet they continue to serve in high positions in the party and in government.

It is time we realise that it is the entire ANC that is corrupt not just individuals in the ANC. The party has endorsed the corruption that is taking place in government. If they did not condone corruption they would deal with all those involved in the looting under Jacob Zuma and all those who stole during the pandemic. Instead those who are corrupt are offered better positions in government.

We are ruled by a mafia organisation. The ANC is a disgrace to our country, and to the millions of people who fought for liberation. It is vital that the ANC is removed from power as soon as is possible. We need to build popular democratic power from below, across the country, so that we can build a real democracy, and socialism, from below.

Contact:

Mqapheli Bonono 073 0673 274
Mfanfikile Sindane 071 552 2010
Nomusa Sizani 081 005 3686