No ANC T-shirts for officials linked to state capture

The national executive committee (NEC) of the African National Congress has decided that its leaders and members implicated in state capture are on their own‚ but will not prevent their supporters within the party from standing by them - in their private capacity.

The NEC met in Cape Town from March 23-25.

Ace Magashule‚ the ANC's secretary general‚ said in a statement after the meeting: "The NEC recommitted itself to continue with the campaign to restore the integrity and dignity of the state and of the ANC as an organisation and further that the fight against all manifestations of corruption and state capture should be intensified".

"The NEC appreciates that‚ in the context of this campaign‚ some members and leaders of the movement may find themselves called to account by law enforcement agencies‚ the legislatures and the Judicial Commission of Inquiry dealing with the matter of state of capture.

"The ANC wishes to reiterate its principled approach that persons so implicated‚ should be presumed innocent until and unless proven otherwise.

"(However). . . members involved in such actions are discouraged from displaying ANC’s paraphernalia and thus creating the false impression that the ANC as organisation identifies with‚ or approve of‚ the misdemeanors of which any any member or leader maybe accused.

"Individual members of the ANC and society have the right to express their sympathy and solidarity with the affected persons in their individual capacity‚ and not through any structures of the movement‚ including the ANC Leagues and the MKMVA."

"In welcoming the concerted efforts of the Executive led by the President‚ as well as the legislatures‚ to put the sad chapter of systemic corruption and state capture behind us‚ we wish to emphasise that cadres of the movement‚

ANC members should see it as their responsibility to cooperate with efforts of the party led by President Cyril Ramaphosa "to put the sad chapter of systemic corruption and state capture behind us"; and "not to seek to obstruct legitimate actions to eliminate these scourges"‚ said Magashule.

The NEC has also resolved to clean up divisions within the ANC.

"All ANC caucuses across legislatures are expected to submit to greater cohesion and maximum discipline including asserting and defending the hegemony of the ANC‚" said Magashule.

"The NEC has directed all its structures to act decisively against instances that openly undermine the unity of the movement and immediately whip into line deployed cadres who openly advance divisive counter-revolutionary agendas to overthrow ANC administrations by aligning themselves with frivolous motions of no confidence from the opposition against fellow ANC deployees."