Africa-Press – South-Africa. The DA has laid criminal charges against the ANC, alleging that the governing party acted as a criminal syndicate and requested that it be “investigated for systemic and calculated racketeering activities over a multitude of years”.
DA chief whip Natasha Mazzone and DA MP Cilliers Brink took the well-trodden path between the DA’s offices in the Marks Building at Parliament and the Cape Town Central police station on Wednesday to lay the charges.
It is not the first time the party has asked for a criminal investigation into the ANC. In March 2019, it wrote to National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Bathohi, asking that the ANC be investigated for “systemic and calculated fraud, racketeering, corruption, looting of public money and related offences over the past two decades”.
In her affidavit, Mazzone stated: “The release of the state capture reports over the last six months has provided further evidence of corruption, racketeering, and looting of public money spanning the entire width and breadth of the ANC controlled state.”
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Mazzone stated that the State Capture report revealed that the ANC received donations from Bosasa, including an elections war room.
She quoted a paragraph from the report, which stated: “The evidence shows that the ANC had accepted donations from companies that were heavily reliant on government contracts, such as Bosasa, without investigating them.
“It was put to President Ramaphosa that the unlawful activities of Bosasa had been the subject of media reports since at least 2009, and that it was difficult to accept that vigilant members of the ANC would not have been aware that Bosasa was the recipient of large government contracts under dubious circumstances.”
She also noted that testimony before the commission implicated several ANC leaders.
“Through the implication of numerous high level ANC members, including but not limited to Jacob Zuma, Gwede Mantashe, Malusi Gigaba and Mosebenzi Zwane, it has become apparent that the ANC as an organisation is collectively implicated in state capture activities,” her affidavit stated.
She quoted another paragraph from the Zondo report, as follows: “It is necessary therefore to interrogate the role of the party in actively engaging in corrupt activities for its own gain, allowing corrupt activities to continue under its watch and failing to intervene to prevent or arrest such activities, creating the framework for corruption and state capture to flourish.”
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She further stated in the affidavit that the report established that the ANC itself benefitted from state capture by receiving payments from third parties who allegedly corruptly acquired government contracts.
Mazzone also mentioned how the ANC’s cadre deployment committee systematically weakened state institutions, thereby enabling corruption.
“The ANC further contributed to these state capture crimes by refusing to take seriously the calls from opposition parties to remove President Zuma, due to allegations of corruption and state capture.
“The ANC actively protected President Zuma and ensured he remained in office as president, thereby allowing the Guptas and close associates of President Zuma to continue pursuing their state capture project and systematically looting taxpayer money,” Mazzone’s affidavit stated.
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