ANC: We will not defend individuals implicated at state capture inquiry

The ANC will not defend any members implicated in wrongdoing in the evidence presented at the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture, national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said.

"If each time there is a name of a leader or member of the ANC being dropped at the commission, the ANC will not do a running commentary. The ANC encourages those individuals and explain if they are implicated," he said.

Kodwa said the party fully supported the work of the commission, but would account for actions of the ANC only as an organisation.

The ANC will, sometime between February and March, appear before the commission to explain the deployment committee and the interface between the party and the state.

"The president [Cyril Ramaphosa] will also lead a delegation to explain our role as the governing party to speak about what did we know, what did we not know, what did we do or not do, the lessons and what we need to do correctly for these allegations of state capture not to come back again," he added.

Meanwhile, former Bosasa executive Angelo Agrizzi on Thursday implicated the ANC in his testimony at the commission, saying that the company once laundered money for use in the party's electioneering in North West.

Agrizzi said the company, now called Global African Solutions, had to launder money through youth centres in order to give the party cash.

The ANC national executive committee (NEC) was meeting in Irene, Pretoria, where secretary-general Ace Magashule said the party’s highest decision-making body would be planning for the year ahead.

"This is the first NEC meeting of the year where we prepare ourselves after the January 8 statement and the launch of our manifesto. We will also have a lekgotla where we will be discussing implementation of what the president said we are going to do this year," Magashule said.