'It's a shame, it's a disgrace' - Zizi Kodwa lashes out against ANC leaders accused of PPE corruption

Deputy state security minister Zizi Kodwa has come out strongly against corruption in the ANC, calling on the party to act decisively against it.

Speaking to TimesLIVE on Monday, a day after addressing the Rivonia ANC branch, Kodwa said corruption was “a shame, a disgrace and complete abomination”.

“It's a dark wall, it's a shame, it's a disgrace, it's a complete abomination when humanity, people are doing everything to save their lives, we are busy discussing corruption which is alleged against some of us.

“It's quite unfortunate and the only way to get out of it, the movement must act and must act decisively,” said Kodwa.

Kodwa is the latest ANC leader to speak out against corruption after the party's national executive committee spent almost two days discussing the matter following revelations of corruption related to Covid-19 relief funds.  

He was speaking after delivering a scathing address to ANC members on Sunday where he, without mentioning his name, took an apparent swipe at party secretary-general Ace Magashule for defending leaders whose children and family members benefited from doing business with the state.

This was after reports emerged that Magashule's close allies allegedly scored tenders related to Covid-19 procurement in his home province of Free State.

Magashule is not the only ANC leader marred in Covid-19 controversy.

President Cyril Ramaphosa's spokesperson, Khusela Diko, was suspended after her husband Thandisiwe was allegedly involved in two tenders worth more than R100m from the Gauteng department of health.    

“The ANC renewal project is under a dark cloud. The ANC renewal project is held hostage by a generation. The most difficult part of renewal is to unlearn wrong things that we accumulated over a long period.

“We must work hard not to allow corruption to be a norm. There is a firewall around us, it is a disgrace to the movement,” Kodwa said at the meeting.

He later told TimesLIVE that he was not taking a swipe at any leader of the ANC but was educating members of the party that the positions held by leaders came with a sacrifice.

He said there was a perception among the public that by virtue of their positions in and proximity to public resources, their family members got jobs and work in government.

“The ANC must manage the perception and therefore you can't justify it by using law and say that the law says it. We are sending different signals as a party, we are sending different wrong signals to the public, what is wrong is wrong and must be condemned.”

He said the ANC has long diagnosed the problem of corruption but it was time to act. Kodwa said Ramaphosa was given a mandate and political will by the ANC to act against corruption when he was elected party president in 2017.

Kodwa further slammed law enforcement agencies for being soft on corruption and only going after government officials instead of political principals.

“Deal with crocodiles and tigers, don't only run to officials if there is any person of whatever size or height, deal with them regardless of whatever position both in the organisation and as well as in society,” said Kodwa.

He said corrupt officials were looting the state because they could see that nothing was being done with their corrupt political principals.