The ANC’s integrity commission recommended that Ace Magashule immediately resign from his post as party’s secretary general.
The Integrity Commission made the recommendation to the party’s national executive committee following the ANC resolution that ANC members accused of corruption or other serious crimes should immediately resign from all positions in the party until the case against them is settled. is. If this is not done voluntarily, the member must be suspended.
The commission met with Magashule at the weekend after it was announced last week that Magashule would remain in his post and would not step aside, even though he was accused in a court case of extensive involvement in corruption.
Magashule then offered to appear before the integrity commission instead.
He is facing 21 charges including fraud, corruption and money laundering. He was released on R200 000 bail in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court last month.
Magashule’s bail conditions entail that he must notify the investigating officer if he wants to apply for a passport and he may not have contact with the state witness.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has meanwhile confirmed that Moroadi Cholota, Magashule’s personal assistant when he was prime minister in the Free State at the time, will testify for the state. The case was adjourned until February 19.
Magashule is accused, among other things, of being aware of irregular agreements and of ordering that more than R50 000 be contributed to Refiloe Mokoena’s child’s study. Mokoena was fired by the South African Revenue Service in November last year. Magashule is also involved in other illegal payments.
Magashule will appear in court next year with his co-accused in connection with the award of a R255 million contract to conduct an audit of asbestos roofs in the Free State. The tender was awarded during Magashule’s term as Free State premier, but it was apparently done in a fraudulent and corrupt manner. It was intended to identify and remove asbestos roofs in the Free State, but the necessary precautionary process was not followed.
Controversial businessman Edwin Sodi and six other alleged perpetrators have already been arrested in connection with the contract. Sodi’s Blackhead Consulting and the late Igo Mpambani’s Diamond Hill Trading 74 won the contract in 2014.
