By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the resignation of ANC Veterans League deputy president Mavuso Msimang is “regrettable”, but the ANC continues to grow.
Msimang’s resignation came after he raised a number of issues crippling the functioning of the state and the economy.
Corruption was one of the issues that Msimang said the ANC has failed to address.
It was so endemic in society it permeated all state organs. This has led to poor service delivery with millions of people live in informal settlements.
He also took on the ANC’s failure to self correct, saying that its own pollsters have warned it is falling significantly short of securing an outright victory in the 2024 elections.
“This dramatic decline in the organisation’s popularity is attributable to widely held perceptions that its members and deployees are corrupt, that the organisation has a high tolerance threshold for venality, and that the deployment of unsuitable people accounts for the government’s deplorable levels of service to the public.”
To address these perceptions, he said, the Veterans League urged ANC leadership “to ensure that members who have been accused of criminality or recommended for referral to criminal justice institutions by commissions set up to investigate corruption, should not be allowed to continue in office”.
“The Veterans League specifically recommended that such individuals be considered ineligible for nomination to represent the ANC in the 2024 national and provincial elections. Unfortunately, the ANC NEC has shown no urgency to deal with this matter,” Msimang said.
Ramaphosa, who was speaking to the media in the Free State after the presidential imbizo, said they were disappointed that Msimang decided to resign, but they still hold him in high regard.
He was one of the veterans of the ANC that has been involved with the party for many years.
“We do regret the decision that he has taken. I am rather pleased that he says he would continue to be involved in one shape or another in matters to do with our country. With time maybe he will be able to participate with us again. We hold him in high regard, said Ramaphosa.”
Ramaphosa said he has respect for Msimang irrespective of his decision to leave the ANC.
Today’s Imbizo in the Free State is the second in the province since the Presidential Izimbizo started in 2022. Ramaphosa’s first Imbizo in the Free State took place in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality in April 2022.
Residents of Matjhabeng Local Municipality have called on government not to make Presidential Imbizos a talk shop.
They complained about the lack of service delivery, water provision and basic sanitation at an Imbizo in Welkom in the Free State.
Residents are faced with sewer spillages, blocked drains, rubbish pilling up on street corners and potholes. To make matters worse, they also grapple with load shedding and constant water cuts.
However, the residents are cautiously optimistic about government’s commitment to resolve their issues. The commitments from government include allocating millions of rands to resolve the water crisis.
Ramaphosa has acknowledged that some municipalities in the Free State are dysfunctional as a result of corruption. He’s committed that through the intervention of the national government, municipalities will get their act together.
“The municipalities here in the Free State don’t work, they don’t work the way in which they are supposed to work. Others deliberately ran the municipalities to the ground, as they were stealing money. Now we are re-building our municipalities, we are reviving them. Even the work they were doing, we as national government are taking over. Some municipalities in the Free State don’t work, they are dysfunctional because of corruption and malfeasance that took place.”
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