Former Mayor Maneli says ANC a just party after being cleared of VBS wrongdoings
Former West Rand Mayor Boyce Maneli on Thursday said the African National Congress (ANC)’s National Dispute Resolution Committee (NDRC), which has cleared him and Merafong Mayor Maphefo Letsie of any wrongdoing linked to their handling of the VBS saga is proof that his party is a just organization.
The two appealed an ANC Gauteng provincial executive committee decision that they should step aside from their roles in public office.
Letsie remains mayor while Maneli is now a member of Parliament.
They had been accused of not acting fast enough to hold to account, those who invested their respective municipalities funds into the now-defunct VBS Mutual Bank.
The ANC’s NDCR found that the pec was unfair, harsh and possibly severe in its approach as the two had not been implicated in any wrongdoing by advocate Terry Motau’s report into the collapsed bank or the ANC’s own provincial integrity committee.
Maneli said it would be hard to believe he was targeted for any other reason but to quash his political career.
For Maneli, the NDCR’s decision reinforces everything he believes about his beloved ANC.
That it can be fair, even when all the odds are stacked against you.
He said his comrades in Gauteng ridiculed both him and Letsie when they wanted to challenge a decision for them to abandon public office and to take responsibility for the VBS saga in their respective municipalities.
He has described what the ANC in the province did to him as career-limiting and malicious defamation of his character, which affected him badly.
When asked if this was about the trajectory of his career, he said the issue first popped up when he was handing over his role as regional chair and pursuing higher posts in the ANC.
Both Maneli and Letsie have been cleared to continue serving as public officials.
-EWN
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