POLL | Will Frank Chikane restore integrity at the ANC?

New ANC integrity commission chair Rev Frank Chikane's vow to deal with corruption and criminality in the party has sparked reactions and debate.

Chikane and the commissioners were appointed about three months ago and this week addressed the media.

“We need to make sure criminals don't take over the country. For now criminals are running us. In terms of Eskom for instance, we have darkness here because criminals are holding us ransom and we need to break it,” he said.

Chikane and the commission will hold ANC members and leaders who break its ethical values to account, a task he said he is up to.

“I wouldn't give up otherwise I would be giving up my country. I'm not ready to be governed by criminals and I'm not ready to be run by syndicates. We're not going to give up, we're going to turn it around. It needs hard work and the commission is here to help solve this particular problem.”

While some welcomed his appointment and said it would bring much needed ethical guidance to the party, others claimed the ANC was beyond repair.

Chikane said ANC members needed to hold higher moral and ethical standards.

“You can go to court and say I've not committed a crime but you have acted unethically. There's a difference between criminal conduct and ethical behaviour. Obviously criminal conduct is unethical but there are ethical issues that are not measured on whether you've committed a crime, your behaviour has brought the organisation into disrepute [even though] you may not go to jail for it.

“The commission operates at a higher level where you deal with integrity issues, not only criminal issues.”

A proposed amendment to the ruling party’s constitution last year called for the introduction of stringent criteria to assess prospective members, including blocking deadbeat parents and those who have been found to have abused women or children.

Members would be excluded if found guilty in a court of law of “an offence containing an element of dishonesty and of a serious nature because of the amount involved or because the money was destined for a project catering for the poor, unemployed or the marginalised in society, or because the perpetrator was an elected ANC leader or a public representative or a civil servant or a person in a position of trust or authority”.

Drug traffickers, human traffickers, money launderers, racketeers or anyone found guilty of involvement in an organised crime syndicate or a gang would also be barred.

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