The ruling party of South Africa has two options: root out corruption or die because of corruption. In this, it can learn from the Chinese Communist Party, which has dealt decisively with corruption.
So stated Gwede Mantashe, South Africa’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Chair of the African National Congress (ANC), in a lecture delivered at the University of Johannesburg on June 9. He argued that the pervasive corruption of the ANC — so deep as to make it fair to paint all ANC leaders as corrupt, at least “by association” — has reached a crisis point, and it would destroy the party if not dramatically addressed. While some leaders of the party reject the characterizations by comparing themselves with the terrible apartheid governments, Mantashe considers this an extremely low bar, and point instead to China.
“We can draw lessons from the Chinese revolution on how they moved from the situation they were in during the cultural revolution to a stage where today they say ‘factionalism and corruption are an exception’,” said Mantashe.
