Putting loyalty first: 'presumed innocent' is ticket to election in ANC

The election of disgraced politicians to ANC leadership structures has provoked public outrage and cast unwelcome light on the party's embrace of problematic public figures as it tries to shake off the state capture debacle.

The choice of former Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu, implicated in the Life Esidimeni scandal in which 144 people died, and former MEC Brian Hlongwa, implicated in a R1-billion fraud scandal, could cost the party as it heads towards next year's election with a corruption cloud hanging over it.

Unless his lawyers succeed in having his fraud case thrown out of court, former president Jacob Zuma, who insists on exercising his right to attend ANC national executive committee meetings as an ex officio member, could still be in court during the election, a potent symbol of the rot that has set in.

Political analyst Somadoda Fikeni said the constitution of the ANC was not clear in proscribing members who have been found to have transgressed - so they have been tolerated over the years.

Fikeni said it was up to the ANC's integrity committee or deployment committee to dissuade such members from either standing for election to the NEC or provincial executive committees, or making themselves available for senior positions, but that was unlikely to happen.

"Constituencies within political parties sometimes operate based on other factors such as political patronage rather than ethical and moral factors. That becomes evident when leaders face criminal charges; they get so much support, and the logic of those supporting them is usually that there is a giant conspiracy because of the ideological outlook of the person, or they say whites were forgiven, why not forgive this one?

"Others would even say there would be no free trials for this one. Either way, where you do have a patronage network and the big-man syndrome, people believe in their leaders irrespective of the issues that happened," Fikeni said.

Zuma, Mahlangu and Hlongwa are not alone in reminding voters that the party not only does not discourage rogues from contesting top positions, but that they are held in as high regard as those who have not been caught with their fingers in the till.

Despite having been convicted of fraud, members such as Tony Yengeni, Ruth Bhengu and Bathabile Dlamini sit on the party's NEC. ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu was convicted of drunk driving.

ANC spokesman Pule Mabe, who was sanctioned by parliament for failing to declare his interest in a company doing business with rail agency Prasa, said there was nothing wrong with convicted people occupying influential positions, as the ANC believes in rehabilitation.

"When individuals rise out of their own shortcomings, regardless of what those could be, they must be given an opportunity to come back and be part of a fully fledged society."

Part of the ANC's problem is its insistence that members who have been charged in court can remain in good standing because they have not yet been convicted - a distinction that voters not schooled in the niceties of ANC politics may not fully appreciate.

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal elected Mike Mabuyakhulu, who is out on R50,000 bail after he was arrested for alleged corruption, as deputy provincial chairman.

In the Free State, three party leaders accused of abusing public funds were elected to the PEC. One, Mathabo Leeto, is expected in court tomorrow for allegedly awarding a R15-million contract without due process. Her colleague was arrested two years ago for stealing nail polish and earrings from Woolworths. A third PEC member, Nozililo Mashiya, was accused of using a council credit card to buy R10,000 of liquor in 2010 while she was Nala municipality's speaker.

In the Eastern Cape, two PEC members, Zukiswa Ncitha and Sindiswa Gomba, face charges related to the Nelson Mandela funeral scandal, in which funds were looted.

Mabe defended the election of these people, saying they had not been found guilty by any court: "People are deemed innocent until and when proven otherwise."