Apartheid no excuse - ANC

2009-06-09 09:00

Heindrich Wyngaard

Cape Town - Apartheid is not to blame for corruption or people who don’t do their jobs, says the ANC.

In the online newsletter ANC Today, the party appeals to government officials and politicians to take the lead in the battle against corruption.

ANC structures should allow for the disciplining of any party member who is guilty of any form of corruption, regardless of the member’s position within the party.

It’s a social vice which could eventually make the new democratic state indistinguishable from the apartheid state, it said.

Undermining fight against poverty

The ANC considers the occurrence of corruption in the public and private sectors as the direct undermining of the national effort to deal with poverty and underdevelopment.

The newsletter also states that “negligence in the execution of official duties also amounts to corruption”. Furthermore, most of today’s government officials do not come from the apartheid era, but were employed by a democratic government.

Amongst other measures, the party has established a code of conduct for government officials and a register of interests for parliamentarians in order to combat corruption.

Members of the ANC’s national executive committee are also asked to declare their interests in the private sector.

South Africans are requested to do away with “the idolisation of the value system which sees individualism and material possessions as the pinnacle of success”, according to the newsletter.

- Die Burger