The African National Congress(ANC) will not bring disciplinary action against Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi for publicly accusing ANC ministers of corruption, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on Tuesday.

"In dealing with this alien behaviour, charging comrade Vavi will not be the best route to take," he said at a media briefing in Johannesburg.

Vavi named Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda and Cooperative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka while criticising the government's action on allegations of corruption in the Cabinet.

Cosatu has claimed that Vavi was speaking on its behalf and could not be charged in his personal capacity.

It was reported at the start of the month that the NWC had discussed the "unprecendented" move of charging Vavi, the leader of an alliance partner for ill-discipline.

Mantashe said that while the NWC believed he had "gone too far", it had decided that, politically, charging Vavi was not the best way forward.

He described Vavi's comments as "mischievous" and "totally disingenuous" and said that the NWC had observed that it appeared to be the "norm" with Vavi that innuendo was used to caricature unnamed leaders of the ANC as corrupt.

Mantashe said that there was "no question" of the ANC being unable to charge its members "because they happened to be leaders of one or the other alliance partner".