ANC calls on DA to lay charges against its City of Cape Town chief whip

27th January 2017 By: News24Wire

ANC calls on DA to lay charges against its City of Cape Town chief whip

The African National Congress (ANC) has called on the Democratic Alliance (DA) to lay charges against the City of Cape Town's chief whip and a councillor after the party’s federal executive found them guilty of ignoring procurement rules.

Western Cape ANC spokesperson Cobus Grobler said on Thursday that they would give the DA a few days to lay charges. If the party did not do so, the ANC would open a case against the DA for not reporting corruption.

Chief Whip Shaun August and councillor Matthew Kempthorne both received suspended membership terminations and fines of R50 000 for allegedly procuring party T-shirts during the 2016 election campaign without following legal processes.

Suspended membership termination means their memberships will be terminated if they are found guilty of a second offence during the next five years.

"Sources have told me that is serious offences. They allegedly colluded with factories and arranged kickbacks when they ordered the shirts. That is corruption," Grobler said.

Western Cape ANC local government spokesperson Richard Dyantyi said the DA was hypocritical for only laying charges against ANC members, but never against its own members.

"The DA is reminded that, by law, it has to report corruption, or be charged for not doing so,” Dyantyi said in a statement on Wednesday.

Western Cape DA spokesperson Anneke Scheepers said on Thursday that no corruption had taken place.

"This was a transgression of internal party procurement regulations, which was dealt with internally," she said.