The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) commends the evaluation of limited information and the preliminary findings made by the Section 89 Independent Panel and calls on President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign from the government as President immediately.
Further, we call on the police to deepen and conclude their investigation so that the President is arrested if found guilty of violating PRECCA. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) must also conclude its investigation and submit its findings so that the public can know if President Ramaphosa contravened the country’s exchange control regulations.
Most of the unanswered questions due to the limitation of the scope of the Independent Panel can be unearthed by a proper police investigation. In addition, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) must also institute a prosecution for the crimes that the President has possibly committed, together with the ongoing investigations, to unravel those that remain sketchy and suspicious, albeit strong.
These revelations do not come as a surprise to us, and we have maintained from the beginning of these allegations that the President has a case to answer, especially concerning the possibility of contravening exchange controls and tax regulations.
Historical inference underpinned our suspicions. In the past, we had pointed out that President Ramaphosa was implicated in illicit financial outflows (IFFs) when he was at Shanduka, Lonmin and MTN. The government and different research tanks have estimated the cost inflicted by the IFFs on the South African economy at a staggering R400 billion annually. Yet little has been done to investigate, arrest, and try and put the culprits in prison.
Corruption is in the DNA of the ANC
SAFTU is vindicated for consistently pointing out that the ANC is rotten to the core and neither of its warring factions is a better devil. They are all the same. It is not by mistake, therefore, that one of its senior leaders once boldly stated that all of the members of the NEC have their little skeletons in the cupboards. That statement has been proven over and over to be correct.
President Ramaphosa himself correctly told the State Capture Commission that the ANC was the ‘number one accused of corruption. Indeed, besides other scandalous corruption reports, he has vindicated his utterances.
In previous statements, SAFTU has repeatedly maintained that corruption spring from the seeds of greed planted by capitalism and that it permeates all branches of the capitalist system, i.e., the capitalist enterprises, the public sector, and institutions such as political parties, trade unions, religious formations and non-governmental organisations.
Further, we have consistently pointed out that the country finds itself at a point of crisis, with almost all sections of the public sector in decline, collapsing or collapsed because of the ANC leadership. Hence the load-shedding turmoil that has been going on for over 15 years now; and the collapse of PRASA, SAA, Denel and another state-owned enterprise. Thieves are currently mercilessly feeding from the Independent Power Producers’ contracts signed with the government with multinational corporations. Eskom is being hollowed out, and the country is plunged into darkness, all to satisfy the greed of capital in clear cohorts with the ANC government.
President Cyril Ramaphosa must resign, and workers must build their own party.
The working class must take seriously the need and process to build a worker’s party on a socialist programme to fight for the seizure of power. No comprador or parasitic bourgeoisie will liberate workers from mass and structural unemployment, poverty, inequalities and corruption. If the dishonest elites don’t steal from the public, they impose neoliberal austerity, which is also based on robbing the poor to feed the elastic lust of a few for more money.
The working class need their own government. Neither factions of the ANC – RET or Ankoles – will champion the interest of the working class. Despite each period worker’s hopes that the incumbent might be better than the predecessor, the brutal class policy he has been carrying out with incision consistently has pushed more workers into a pauper class or under class.. This cruel class policy has been amplified by the corruption that has plundered public resources and deprived workers of social services.
Establishing that there is prima facie, for the allegations against the President concerning Phala Phala is just an illustration that these leaders are ruling in their narrow interest.
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