JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged his party, the ruling African National Congress, to fight corruption.
“We have no other choice, either we deal with corruption or we perish,” Ramaphosa said on Tuesday closing the ANC conference where its leader was re-elected. “Corruption within our party is, in fact, a terrible threat.”
Ramaphosa’s re-election as party leader was a major victory after a spirited campaign by his rivals to elect former Health Minister Zweli Mkhize.
Although he campaigned as an anti-corruption fighter, Ramaphosa has recently been beset by scandal. He has faced calls for him to resign after a parliamentary report said he may have breached currency regulations by keeping unreported amounts of dollars on his farm.
Last week, Ramaphosa survived a parliamentary vote to start impeachment proceedings. His re-election as ANC leader paves the way for him to run for a second term as South Africa’s president in the 2024 national elections.
Unity within the party is needed, according to Ramaphosa, to tackle South Africa’s huge array of problems, including nationwide power cuts of more than 7 hours a day and an unemployment rate of 35%.
Cabinet minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, one of the members of parliament who defied the ANC and voted in favor of impeachment proceedings against Ramaphosa, may face party disciplinary action for his disobedience. After Ramaphosa’s re-election as party leader, he said he hoped for a better ANC.
“I hope that the future can be better for the ANC, that it can be stronger and that it can be more responsive to the people, that we can serve the people better,” Dlamini-Zuma said on the sidelines of the conference. “I hope people can trust the ANC.”
The leadership race took up virtually the entire time of the ANC’s 5-day conference and delegates had no time to debate and adopt new policies. Nor has it released the results of the vote to elect the 80 members of the National Executive Committee.
The conference will meet again in January to finalize its policy briefings, newly elected secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said on Tuesday. The conference experienced long delays during delegate registration.
