The African National Congress (ANC) has made a resolution to keep its policy which requires members who are criminally charged to voluntarily step-aside from party and government activities.
This was part of the resolution taken by the ANC’s organisational renewal commission in its 55th national elective conference.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s rival in the race to head the nation’s governing party called for the review of the rule that compels members to relinquish their leadership positions if they’re found to have brought the organisation into disrepute.
ANC Youth League member, Fasiha Hassan, said that members who were asked to step aside would get their cases reviewed every six months.
“We cannot, as a governing party, ask for the trust of our people while deploying people charged with serious crimes and ultimately, the conference has urged the NEC to ensure the regulations be implemented uniformly, impartially, consistently, fairly and not be used to fight factional battles.”
The policy has been criticised by some of the ANC members who argued that it goes against the country’s Constitution which says everybody is innocent until proven guilty.
Hassan said the policy did not trample on anyone’s constitutional rights.
“The intention behind the step aside resolution is to rebuild trust- its not to replicate the NPA, it’s not to replace the criminal justice system. It’s to say that we, as an organisation, acknowledge there are issues we feel internally we need to be dealing with it. Why? Because we are leaders of society.”
Source: Bloomberg, Eyewitness News, Business Day, image from Twitter: @AthiGeleba