Cape Town – Deputy President Paul Mashatile reportedly defended the ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa against corruption and money laundering allegations, while answering questions during the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Thursday.
According to EWN opposition parties grilled Mashatile on alleged corrupt politicians, including President Cyril Ramaphosa and the government’s commitment to prosecuting high-profile corruption cases.
Mashatile said that an inter-departmental committee was working expeditiously on the implementation of the government’s anti-money laundering strategy, adding that no one was exempt from prosecution and appealed for patience.
“There’s no one that is special. They must just do their work, so I’m not going to be chasing certain high-profile leaders and so on,” the report quoted the deputy president as saying.
He said that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) was working on increasing the number of investigations into complex and serious money laundering cases.
Mashatile implored other political parties to move away from the narrative that the ANC was corrupt, stating that the party had always been an anti-corruption party, The Citizen reported.
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“The issue of corruption shouldn’t be singled out to a particular party. There is often an attempt to say the ANC is a corrupt party, which is not the case. Let’s deal with those officials that are corrupt. Let’s move away from that notion.
“There should be no finger-pointing to the ANC. We as the ANC have always been anti-corruption party, always. Many laws initiated by us are anti-corruption and we want them to be implemented right down to the ground,” the report quoted Mashatile as saying.
He said that the NPA and other law enforcement agencies were implementing an integrated action plan to ensure a sustained increase in investigations and prosecutions of serious and complex money-laundering cases, the report said.
Last month, the government’s International Cooperation, Trade and Security (ICTS) cluster said a plan to address South Africa being grey-listed was in place.
The cluster said Cabinet had considered the action plan and was committed to working actively with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to address the outstanding deficiencies.
The FATF had determined that South Africa needed to make further and sustained progress in addressing the eight areas of strategic deficiencies related to the effective implementation of laws on combating money laundering and financing terrorism.
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Compiled by Olwethu Mpeshe
