Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to lay charges of corruption against his own party members and suspend them immediately, saying corrupt cadres must be jailed, not given a harsher slap on the wrist.

In his lengthy seven-page letter to all African National Congress (ANC) structures on Sunday morning, Ramaphosa had not once mentioned any independent, decisive, and urgent investigation and prosecution of party or cabinet members as part of his so called "turning point in our fight against corruption", Steenhuisen said in a statement.

"This letter is word salad when President Ramaphosa has demonstrated, most recently, that corrupt cadres continue to be rewarded within his party, and not removed from their positions and punished in accordance with the law of the country," he said.

Just this past week, former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede, who was removed from her position last year in the face of a litany of tender corruption charges to the value of R400-million, was sworn in as a member of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, costing the taxpayer R1.1-million per year.

Similarly, ANC secretary general Ace Magashule faced no consequences following the awarding of coronavirus (Covid-19) supply procurement tenders to his two sons Tshepiso and Thato to the value of R2.7-million.

This further demonstrated that the ANC’s Integrity Commission was toothless. Strengthening it, as Ramaphosa mentioned in his letter, would mean that corrupt cadres would merely receive a harsher slap on the wrist instead of being investigated, prosecuted, and jailed, which was a long overdue outcome for so many members of the ANC and its governments, Steenhuisen said.

Ramaphosa should lay charges of corruption against his own party members and suspend them immediately, not allow the Integrity Commission to dish out a warning and a reward package.

"This is not a turning point in the ANC’s fight against corruption. This is a longer deflection mechanism from the fact that the ANC still cannot and will not deal decisively with its own corruption. Ramaphosa is paralysed. He remains a spectator to his own party whose corruption has rotted the organisation so deeply, and so insidiously that it cannot be effectively rooted out without the ANC’s complete self-implosion," Steenhuisen said.

At this stage, the cost of truly dealing with the ANC’s corruption was the purge of the entire party - something which Ramaphosa still would not risk at the expense of his country. It was once again, the ANC over South Africa.

"I will be compiling a list of each and every ANC member and public servant facing allegations of corruption in the coming week which I will submit to the president, and which the Democratic Alliance will track very closely to see just how serious President Ramaphosa alleges he has become in the fight against his party’s corruption," he said.

"I myself have instructed DA councillors this week to lay charges of theft and fraud against mayors and municipal managers of municipalities which have defaulted on their Eskom bills, yet continue to receive payment of rates from residents. South Africans cannot continue to pay for services they never receive because of money stolen by greedy ANC cadres."

Ramaphosa may have drawn a line in the sand on this issue, but South Africa knew that this line had been moved time and time again with every empty promise made. When the ANC said it "dips its head in shame" over corrupt members, it was really burying its head in the sand and hoping that South Africa would forget what it had done.

"We have not forgotten how your party and its members continue to ravage our country, President Ramaphosa, and we are tired of your dithering and hesitance. Suspend and prosecute your cadres as promised. Anything less is merely more talk and less action from a spectator president," Steenhuisen said.

In the letter, Ramaphosa wrote, among other things, corruption related to the Covid-19 procurement process was unforgivable. “What has caused the greatest outrage is that there are private sector companies and individuals (including civil servants) who have exploited a grave medical, social, and economic crisis to wrongfully enrich themselves.

"This is an unforgivable betrayal for the millions of South Africans who are being negatively affected by the impact of Covid-19, experiencing hunger daily, hopelessness, and joblessness,” Ramaphosa wrote.

“As the NEC [national executive committee] has determined, we now need to draw a line in the sand. We need to act urgently; we need to be decisive and we need to demonstrate a clear political will. The time has come for the ANC to be unflinching in restoring the values, ethics, and standing of our organisation.

“Our deeds must, always, match our words. We cannot, as the ANC, rightfully call ourselves leaders of society if we fail to lead the people in eradicating corruption from our own ranks. We must acknowledge that our movement, the African National Congress, has been and remains deeply implicated in South Africa’s corruption problem. We have to be sensitive to the concerns that are being raised by our people about our role as a movement in corrupt activities. Now is the time ... to make a break with the past and to act,” Ramaphosa wrote.