COSATU asks law enforcement to fast-track criminal investigations into politicians

JOHANNESBURG - Union federation Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has called on law enforcement to fast-track criminal investigations as politicians facing serious allegations find themselves in a bind ahead of the general elections.

Eyebrows were raised on Wednesday, when the African National Congress (ANC) released its list of nominees for public office that included senior members accused of abuse of power or corruption.

READ: MPs want feedback on the implementation of State Capture recommendations

ANC national executive committee (NEC) members David Mahlobo, Zizi Kodwa and Gwede Mantashe are among those named in the state capture report – with claims they benefitted from dodgy public sector contracts.

While none of them have been formally charged, the ANC is facing harsh criticism for fielding candidates accused of rot.

COSATU spokesperson Matthew Parks says the ANC’s perceived hard stance on corruption and misconduct will help to clean up the party’s image.

“There will always be contradictions. In a normal society, you would not even have a situation that if you were charged you would need to step aside. But I think the ANC was correct and I think we need to support it strongly as COSATU that given the levels of state capture corruption in the body politic, we need to go and be much more harsh and much more extreme.”

He says police and the National Prosecuting Authority need to address capacity constraints to help root out maladministration in the public sector.

 “If the law enforcement agencies feel someone has a case to account for then we need to move at a much greater speed. It’s one thing to tell someone who has been charged to step aside – it’s much more difficult to tell someone who hasn’t been charged to step aside. That’s the difficult thing. But we do need to see the national prosecuting authority and the police and those institutions moving at a much greater speed.”