STRUGGLE stalwart and deputy president of the ANC Veterans League, Dr Mavuso Msimang, has resigned from the governing party.
Msimang resigned on Wednesday, 6 December, after penning down a three-page letter directed to ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula.
He listed devastating reasons for his departure in a party that he served for more than 60 years.
Some of the things he mentioned are the Gauteng Health Life Esidimeni tragedy, pit latrines at schools, lack of proper housing for people, others dying while waiting for ambulances, and the raw sewage flowing into the uMngeni River and into the sea, polluting eThekwini beaches and the load shedding from Eskom failures.
In the letter, Msimang said: “It is with profound sadness that I inform you of my decision to terminate my African National Congress (ANC) membership. I have served the organisation loyally and diligently for over six decades.”
He further stated that for several years now, the ANC has been wracked by widespread corruption, with devastating consequences on the governance of the country and the lives of poor people.
“Of course, the ANC did not invent corruption. We inherited a state that was morally bankrupt, and that was built on the most profound forms of corruption. When we took over government in 1994, we had the moral high ground and the conviction that we would be able to root out the old-boy networks that had benefited from and strangled the apartheid economy.
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“Yet, three decades later, the ANC’s own track record of corruption is a cause of great shame. The corruption we once decried is now part of our movement’s DNA. This has had dire consequences for the most vulnerable members of our society,” he said.
He said they don't need to dig too deeply to discover that most of the country’s failures are linked to corruption somewhere in the system, a tender that should never have been awarded, a job that should have gone to a better qualified, more deserving and less factionally aligned person.
“This is happening on the watch of the ANC government. An Eskom brought to its knees by high-level corruption and sabotage has literally rendered the nation powerless and all too often left it in the dark.
“Transnet’s mismanagement has derailed its freight haulage system. In consequence, road transporters who have stepped into the breach sometimes have to wait in 40km-long queues while emitting noxious gases into the atmosphere because ports are congested,” he said.
He said he has realised that his time and energies would be better spent elsewhere.
“Even as I painfully sever ties with my once glorious organisation, I shall continue to keep a vigil over any and all matters pertaining to governance in the country,” said Msimang.
