STAFF REPORTER|
COOPERATIVE Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has lashed out at the ANC’s step aside rule, saying it is unjust and sowing deep divisions in the governing party.
In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with the SABC on Sunday, Dlamini-Zuma said the step aside rule was inconsistent with the country’s Constitution because as it stands right now it avers that ‘you are guilty until proven innocent’.
“There is law in our country [in line with the Constitution] which says you are innocent until proven guilty. That’s the law of the country … and there is a law in the ANC that says you are guilty until proven innocent,” said Dlamini-Zuma.
“There are people who have been charged for more than three years and yet they have not even gone to trial. What what kind of justice is that. It is not justice when you are charged and you wait for years [to go to trial]. What were you charged for if two years later you are still waiting for the trial to start.”
She said the ANC must stand for justice as opposed to finding people guilty’ and wanting them to prove themselves innocent.
“The ANC must stand for justice … because if it’s [the step aside rule] done this way then it exacerbates suspicions and divisions … that you are trying to remove people from positions [for factional purposes]. For instance, we are now going to conference. There are people who have been charged for more than a year but have not appeared in court for trial and they are not taking part [in the national conference]. The SG [suspended Secretary General Ace Magashule] is one of them. But there are others too. Why must you arrest first and investigate later?”
Dlamini-Zuma said the national conference in December must comprehensively discuss the step aside rule, and take a decision on whether to retain or scrap it.
Several ANC provinces have called for the step aside rule to be completely scrapped.
They include KwaZulu-Natal ad Limpopo.
Dlamini-Zuma has accepted nomination as one of the candidates for the ANC presidency at the party’s forthcoming elective conference in December.
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