Former president Jacob Zuma repeatedly ignored advice from senior ANC leaders to steer clear of scandals that tarnished his office and the governing party during his tenure as head of state.
This was revealed by former KwaZulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu, who told the Sunday Times during an interview this week that after three meetings with Zuma he had concluded that the former president was unable to distinguish right from wrong.
Mchunu, who now serves in the powerful ANC national working committee, broke his silence about attempts by senior party leaders, including co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister Zweli Mkhize and current KwaZulu-Natal premier Willies Mchunu, to convince Zuma to keep away from controversy.
"We had meetings with Zuma - myself, Zweli Mkhize and Willies Mchunu. I've held another meeting alone with him and the last was in October last year, where we had a good opportunity to tell him what his flaws have been.
"The meetings were about matters that we picked up, things we believed would have a negative impact on him and the ANC," Senzo Mchunu said.
"But Zuma has of late thrown his sense of distinguishing between what is wrong or right into serious question."
Mchunu refused to divulge details of the meetings, such as which controversies had triggered the interventions.
But Zuma was involved in scandals almost immediately after he was sworn in as president of the country in 2009.
In December 2009, the Mail&Guardian newspaper broke the story about state money being spent on refurbishing Zuma's private Nkandla home.
Two months later, when Zuma was preparing to deliver the state of the nation address, it emerged that he had fathered a child with Orlando Pirates boss Irvin Khoza's daughter Sonono.
This opened a floodgate of scandals, including escalated spending on Nkandla and relations with the Gupta family.
Though Mchunu would not share details, it appears the first meetings were held about the time he was ANC provincial secretary and Mkhize was still provincial chair of KwaZulu-Natal. They continued to talk to Zuma after Mchunu succeeded Mkhize as provincial chair of the ANC and premier of the province.
Insiders in KwaZulu-Natal say Mchunu's stance on Zuma's controversies contributed to his removal as party provincial chairman in 2015 and eventually as premier.
Mchunu was one of President Cyril Ramaphosa's chief campaigners in the run-up to last year's Nasrec conference.
Mchunu said the ANC under the leadership of president Zuma was infiltrated by elements of greed, with some leaders abandoning party values.
"The fact that there is a Zondo commission means that it is investigating what comrades in government have been doing. But I take exception that all the bad allegations and issues of derailment and decay are done by the ANC. It is done by individuals in the ANC, it's not the ANC. It is some comrades."
Mchunu said he believed that Zuma and those who enabled the rot to creep in would be haunted by their deeds for the rest of their lives. He launched a veiled attack against Zuma, who recently told students at the Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha that he did not believe state capture existed.
"That is why they go and make these lectures, which are still an unfortunate part of the derailment, where people ask what is state capture, pretending that they don't see what has taken place," he said.
"I believe strongly that there is state capture, at the core of which is corruption, decay and rot. It doesn't matter what you call it, the truth you can't remove is that there is rot. It is no longer speculation."
During the same speech in Mthatha, Zuma had also questioned why the country opted for a constitutional democracy instead of a parliamentary democracy.
Mchunu said it was disingenuous of Zuma to cast doubt on the constitution as he was a senior leader when the supreme law of the country was crafted and adopted.
But the ANC beyond Zuma was redeemable, he said.
"It's going to take a bitter fight among ourselves in the ANC and we are already experiencing that fight. The fight to reclaim space for morality and ethical leadership within the ANC, which has been diminished by actions of certain comrades."
Mchunu was hopeful that the commission of inquiry into state capture would be strong on recommendations and that those who had stolen from South Africans would be criminally prosecuted.
The work of rebuilding and renewing the liberation movement had begun under the leadership of Ramaphosa, Mchunu said.
"President Ramaphosa has started. He has sought to revive a number of state institutions that have been destroyed by derailment and decay over the past few years - the NPA, police, Hawks, state-owned enterprises - in line with the renewal of our ethics, moral fibre. He needs to push that agenda vigorously, despite pushback from within the ANC."
Efforts to get comment from Mkhize and Willies Mchunu were unsuccessful...