‘She can’t be condemned forever’: ANC sticks by its cadre Dina Pule

The ANC is sticking by its cadre Dina Pule in the midst of a public onslaught over her appointment as minister of social development.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula on Thursday defended President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to appoint Pule, arguing that she has served her sentence over the malfeasance and ethical lapses she was found guilty of more than a decade ago.

Mbalula argued that Pule has come back into the political limelight a reformed individual who took responsibility for her actions. He said the criticism she has received since the announcement earlier this week has been a bit too harsh.

“To answer it honestly, we must speak not only of a sanction served but of the work of correction that has been done and that continues. The people of South Africa do not hand down life sentences, least of all where there has been accountability, redress and correction,” said Mbalula.

“Comrade Pule faced a process more than a decade ago. She was sanctioned by that process, and she accepted the consequences. She stepped aside before we even made it policy. She stepped aside — I call it aside, but she even stepped down from her responsibilities and positions. In government, she was sacked; in parliament, she stepped down. She never served in any structure of the ANC; she disappeared.”

He said the ANC and the country in general believe in redemption and that individuals found on the wrong side of the law have the capacity to self-correct and rebuild themselves.

Mbalula was speaking a day after Pule was sworn in as a cabinet minister, a move that has been widely criticised, with many saying the ANC showed it was not serious about its renewal process by appointing an individual who was previously removed from cabinet over ethical lapses.

After President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that he had appointed Pule as minister of social development, ANC veterans leagues, political parties, civil society, and unions questioned why and how that decision was taken.

ANC Veteran’s League president Snuki Zikalala told TimesLIVE that he was “not happy” with the decision to appoint Pule to the cabinet and that they were still consulting with Mbalula on how the decision was taken.

Zikalala agreed that people should not be punished forever but that at this crucial time the ANC had to do all it could to regain the trust of South Africans.

Pule was axed by former president Jacob Zuma as communications minister in 2013 over a string of scandals that centred on her allegedly channelling contracts to her then boyfriend, or his associates.

The Sunday Times at the time had been running a slew of investigative pieces that uncovered the impropriety that eventually led to her axing.

At the time of her firing, parliament’s ethics committee found that she had misled parliament by continuously denying her relationship with her then partner Phosane Mngqibisa and recommended that she be criminally charged.

Mbalula said Pule had worked on herself and worked to regain the trust of her ANC comrades, who put her back into the party’s highest decision-making body, the national executive committee.

“In the years since, comrade Pule earned back the confidence of her peers through the most democratic tests our movement offers. She was elected by comrades to the national executive committee, she was entrusted with senior responsibilities in the Women’s League and was returned to parliament by the people through the ballot,” said Mbalula.

“A person who has answered for her mistakes and served her sanction and rebuilt trust through the free choice of the electorate is not to be condemned in perpetuity.”

He said that the ANC fully supported Pule and backed Ramaphosa’s decision to appoint her.

“Comrade Pule, among others, underwent internal ethics counselling within the movement. Consulted with our veterans whose wisdom and moral authority the ANC holds dear, without being directed by a disciplinary committee or integrity commission,” said Mbalula.

“Comrade Pule does not take this second chance lightly. She knows better than most that it carries a heavy price and a heavy responsibility for the ANC in this very period of renewal, the renewal of our values, ethical standings and the trust of the people. She carries that weight consciously and is determined to honour it in service.”

TimesLIVE