In South Africa, the Speaker of the National Assembly is under investigation for corruption. Earlier this week, the home of Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula was searched. Bad news for the ANC, the ruling party, in the middle of the electoral campaign.
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With our correspondent in Johannesburg, Roman Song
In South Africaeven if the President of the National Assembly claims to be innocent and says she is cooperating with the police, the announcement of the search of her house risks embarrassing her party, the ANC, the majority party in Parliament, two months before the elections general.
Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula is suspected of having received bribes when she was defense minister. In exchange for money, she allegedly awarded a contract to a subcontractor from the Ministry of the Armed Forces. A business manager says she paid the minister more than 100,000 euros between 2016 and 2019. The affair was revealed in 2021, but it has just taken a new turn.
The lifestyle of Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakulawhen she was Minister of Defense, had already been singled out by an MP who demanded explanations about her stays in luxury hotels and her trips on a private jet.
Suspicions of corruption within the ANC
This new affair is yet another example that corruption is not a distant memory within the ANC, despite President Cyril Ramaphosa’s promise of a new era. In the list of candidates for the next elections, the ANC has maintained several ministers who have been implicated in the report of the anti-corruption commission Zondo.
It features Dipuo Peters. The Minister for Small Business is currently suspended for violating the ethical code of conduct when she was Minister of Transport. But within the ANC, suspicions of corruption are not enough to put an end to a political career. This power goes to the voters, who will be called to the polls on May 29.
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