The South African Federation of Trade Unions notes with grave concern the deepening allegations facing Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe, including allegations around undeclared Chinese-donated SUVs, claims by her former spokesperson Lumka Oliphant, and the Sunday Times/TimesLIVE report of leaked audio in which she allegedly indicated she would avoid answering certain parliamentary questions.
SAFTU is not a court of law. We do not declare anyone guilty before due process. But these allegations are serious enough to demand immediate presidential clarification, not silence, evasions, or factional protection.
The central question is no longer only what Minister Tolashe did or did not do. The central question is: why is President Cyril Ramaphosa not acting?
Ministers are appointed by the President. They serve in Cabinet because he appoints them and because he retains confidence in them. Why, then, must the country be subjected to this public spectacle while the President keeps quiet? Why should Parliament be the first institution forced to extract answers, when the President himself should be explaining whether he still has confidence in a minister facing such serious allegations?
This pattern is not limited to Minister Tolashe. Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie is also facing serious allegations relating to alleged links to drug-related organised crime, which he has denied. These allegations, too, require proper investigation and public accountability.
The reason the President appears paralysed is becoming clearer: the ANC’s own top leadership is itself engulfed by unresolved scandals, adverse findings, ethical controversies and factional compromises.
But South Africa did not arrive here overnight.
The roots of this crisis lie in the steady erosion of accountability inside the governing party and the gradual hollowing out of Parliament and constitutional oversight institutions in defence of factional and political interests.
President Ramaphosa himself remains politically wounded by Phala Phala. The independent Section 89 panel chaired by former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo found that there may be sufficient evidence that the President committed serious violations of the Constitution and the law and may have engaged in serious misconduct.
President Ramaphosa was ultimately saved from possible impeachment not because the findings disappeared, but because the ANC still possessed a parliamentary majority at the time and used it to vote against the adoption of the Section 89 panel report and against proceeding with an impeachment inquiry.
Ramaphosa therefore cannot today posture as though parliamentary protection of compromised leaders is something foreign to him. He directly benefited from it.
This is exactly the same pattern South Africans witnessed during the Jacob Zuma years, when the ANC repeatedly used its parliamentary majority to shield President Zuma from accountability, motions of no confidence and the consequences of mounting scandals and constitutional breaches.
For years, Parliament was reduced into a factional shield rather than an accountability institution.
Only when factional balances shifted inside the ANC itself did Zuma eventually lose protection.
This exposes the deeper crisis in the governing party: accountability is often not determined by principle, constitutional morality or ethical leadership, but by factional calculations, internal power balances and political survival.
Deputy President Paul Mashatile has also faced sustained public scrutiny over his lavish lifestyle, including media reports concerning several luxury properties linked to his family and collectively reported to be worth around R76 million. Mashatile has publicly stated that some of these properties belong to his children and family members rather than to him personally. Media investigations and opposition parties have further raised questions about companies linked to his sons receiving Gauteng government contracts. Mashatile has denied wrongdoing and rejected allegations that unlawful tenders were awarded to his children.
ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe was adversely implicated in the Zondo Commission findings relating to Bosasa-funded security upgrades at his properties. Importantly, these are not merely allegations floating in the public domain; they are formal findings of a Judicial Commission of Inquiry established by the President himself. Mantashe challenged aspects of these findings in court and failed to overturn them.
Similarly, First Deputy Secretary-General Nomvula Mokonyane was the subject of damning Zondo Commission findings, including recommendations for criminal investigation and possible prosecution relating to Bosasa-linked gratification.
Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula was also found by the Public Protector to have improperly benefited from a Dubai trip sponsored through a service provider linked to sporting interests. Second Deputy Secretary-General Maropene Ramokgopa has also faced allegations relating to undisclosed luxury vehicle donations, which she denies.
These findings and reports cannot simply be wished away through public denialism. Findings of Judicial Commissions of Inquiry and the Public Protector remain in force unless and until they are successfully reviewed and set aside by a competent court. Mere political denials are not enough to erase legally standing findings by constitutional and statutory oversight institutions.
The tragedy confronting South Africa is that the very leadership expected to enforce accountability is itself drowning in allegations, scandals, unresolved findings and factional compromises.
Former ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini once notoriously remarked that if the “skeletons” of ANC NEC members were exposed, “hell would break loose.” Over time, that statement has acquired deeply disturbing political meaning.
From Phala Phala, to CR17 funding controversies, to Bosasa findings, to luxury properties, undisclosed benefits, tender allegations, misuse of state resources and endless ethical scandals — the country is witnessing a governing elite trapped by mutual vulnerability.
The whole country is effectively being held hostage by the skeletons in the closets of the political elite.
That is why decisive action rarely happens.
That is why accountability becomes selective.
That is why scandal after scandal produces outrage but very little consequence.
Leaders compromised by allegations and adverse findings cannot easily act decisively against others facing allegations because the system increasingly operates through mutual protection, factional calculations and political survival.
This is why the promise of “renewal” has collapsed. The euphoria that accompanied Ramaphosa’s rise has died because the lived reality has been delay, selective accountability, factional protection and endless scandal.
The ANC’s electoral decline confirms this crisis. Under Jacob Zuma, the ANC won 62.15% in 2014. Under Ramaphosa, it collapsed to 57.5% in 2019 and then to 40.18% in 2024, losing its outright majority for the first time since 1994. Millions of former ANC voters did not rush to endorse another party; many simply stayed at home rather than endorse this chaos.
Ordinary workers, the unemployed and poor communities pay the price for this paralysis through collapsing services, corruption, unemployment, austerity, poverty and growing social despair.
SAFTU therefore demands:
President Ramaphosa must publicly state whether he still has confidence in Minister Sisisi Tolashe and Minister Gayton McKenzie.
The President must explain what steps he has taken since these allegations became public.
All allegations against the ministers must be subjected to independent investigation without political shielding.
Parliament must continue its oversight, but the President must not outsource his constitutional responsibility to Parliament.
The Executive Ethics Code must be applied equally to all ministers, regardless of faction, office, or political usefulness.
If the whole leadership is compromised, the likes of Tolashe and McKenzie will never be held accountable. That is the crisis South Africa faces: not isolated scandals, but a governing elite that has lost the moral authority to police itself.
A statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU by the General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi.
For media inquiries, contact
National Spokesperson:
Newton Masuku
newtonm@saftu.org.za 0661682157
Media Officer
Asive Dyani
0719019564
