'ANC not for sale': Ramaphosa

24 March 2016 - 08:09 By SIPHO MASOMBUKA and KINGDOM MABUZA
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As the Hawks launch a full-scale investigation into President Jacob Zuma's son, Duduzane, and the Gupta family, amid allegations of state capture, business has warned of catastrophe if decisive action is not taken.

The Banking Association of South Africa said interference in the government by private groups was threatening the nation's constitutional democracy.

The association's managing director, Cas Coovadia, said state capture was a euphemism for blatant corruption. "We remain deeply concerned and disturbed that the worrisome trend of undue and illegitimate influence and interference in the state continues to represent a clear and present danger and threat to the stability of our constitutional democracy."

Last night Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa warned that the scandal involving the Guptas allegedly offering ANC members cabinet posts was a defining moment for the state and the ruling party. "The ANC is not for sale ... The ANC refuses to be captured,'' Ramaphosa told a gathering of academics and business executives in Sandton, Johannesburg, organised by the party.

''This is going to be a defining moment,'' Ramaphosa said.

He warned those implicated in attempts to capture the state that: ''We will stop you in your tracks . not in South Africa. We will stop you. All we ask for now is time and space to deal with this matter.''

Ramaphosa added it was not only the Gupta family involved.

Yesterday the Hawks confirmed they had launched a corruption probe into Duduzane Zuma and the Guptas after a criminal complaint was laid by the DA.

This followed revelations by senior politicians - including Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas - that they had been offered positions by the Guptas, close friends of the president, for favours.

Duduzane Zuma, who is in business with the family, was said to be party to the offer the family allegedly made to Jonas in November, before the president fired Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister, triggering a run on the rand.

The Guptas have denied the allegations and President Zuma told MPs last week that he was in charge of all cabinet appointments.

The ANC said at the weekend that it had full confidence in Zuma, but would hold its own inquiry into the allegations of state capture.

Yesterday, SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Alan Mukoki urged the ruling party to govern the country properly.

Mukoki said the revelations about the Guptas had to be investigated as they damaged the reputation of the country, particularly abroad.

The Chamber of Mines said the sector was asking questions about this matter.

While business demands answers from the government, a panel discussion at Tshwane University of Technology yesterday heard claims that the "systematically captured" ruling party was beyond redemption.

Political analysts and politicians, debating whether state capture was a myth or reality, agreed that the party was governing for the benefit of a select few.

Former ANC Youth League president Ronald Lamola said the ANC was its members and individuals in the party had been captured.

He said the only way to reclaim the organisation was by mass action.

"I do not want my children and the future generation to urinate on my grave and ask 'what did you do?' The revolution happens in the class consciousness of the people who are ready to stand up and say 'this is where we want the country to go to'. That is the solution," he said.

Ex-Economic Freedom Fighters MP and now Black First Land First leader Andile Mngxitama was less diplomatic about his idea of a solution - topple the government.

"For us who want change, we must organise and overthrow capitalism and the ruling class. That is the solution we have and students are showing us the way. Organise for the next decade of true liberation. The ANC cannot reorganise. It must be defeated."

Political analyst Tinyiko Maluleke lamented that ordinary South Africans had no organisation they believed would champion their aspirations but the ANC.

"The historic movement that has championed the cause of the people has reached a state where it is systematically being captured, taken away from the people and hi-jacked. You vote for them but what they go and actually do is not for you. What needs to be done is to reclaim the ANC and if we cannot reclaim the ANC then we need to make something similar to the ANC," he said.

He said the Guptas had not created themselves but were the product of broader corrupt processes.

- Additional reporting by Reuters

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