Minister Sisisi Tolashe to appear before ANC’s Integrity Commission over SUV scandal

Embattled Social Development Minister Sisisi Tolashe will be called before the ANC’s Integrity Commission, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula told Daily Maverick on Thursday.

The summons follows Daily Maverick’s reporting on two luxury SUVs intended as a donation for the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) from Chinese representatives. Our investigation, drawing on vehicle registration records, suggested that Tolashe instead gave the cars to her two adult children.

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Both the ANC and the ANCWL confirmed to Daily Maverick that the SUVs, valued together at close to R1-million, never reached the party — despite Tolashe telling Parliament in February that they had been given to the ANCWL.

Tolashe also did not disclose the cars as gifts in any recent parliamentary Register of Members’ Interests.

With a seemingly last-minute meeting of the ANC’s highest body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), scheduled for Friday, Daily Maverick asked Mbalula if the SUV issue would feature on the agenda.

“The NEC discusses these matters through the Integrity Commission,” Mbalula told Daily Maverick.

Asked whether the Integrity Commission would call Tolashe before it, Mbalula responded: “Yes, they will.”

He added: “Based on your reports, she can [also] present herself voluntarily.”

Tolashe could be asked to step aside

The Integrity Commission is the ANC’s internal disciplinary body. Chaired by the Rev Frank Chikane, it is tasked with investigating party members implicated in fraud, corruption and misconduct.

The body can recommend a number of sanctions, which then have to be authorised by the NEC: most notably, the requirement that a party representative must step aside from their political role.

In the most extreme outcome, it can recommend that an ANC member be expelled or pressured to resign. In the most lenient scenario, a member could escape with a warning or reprimand.

Mbalula did not indicate when Tolashe would appear before the body.

Hawks also circling

Daily Maverick also understands that the Hawks are considering investigating Tolashe for a possible violation of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (Precca).

This follows a criminal case being opened against Tolashe by ActionSA MP Dereleen James this week over the SUVs.

James has indicated that she will approach Parliament’s ethics committee and the Public Protector over the matter.

The DA spokesperson on social development, Nazley Sharif, meanwhile, announced on Wednesday that she had written to President Cyril Ramaphosa to determine whether Tolashe had requested his permission to accept the cars as gifts, as is required by the Executive Members’ Ethics Act.

If Tolashe did not do so, it would be the second time in a month that she is in hot water with Ramaphosa: Daily Maverick reported this week that she received a written reprimand from the President in March for instituting disciplinary proceedings against her department director-general and advertising for his replacement — neither of which Tolashe was lawfully permitted to do without explicit presidential approval.

With the walls seemingly closing in on Tolashe, there is much speculation about whether Ramaphosa will remove her from his Cabinet in the near future — or whether Tolashe’s position at the helm of the ANCWL might offer her a degree of political protection as the ANC gears up for its next elective conference in 2027.

Despite the fact that the ANC Women’s League’s public profile has dwindled to near-invisibility in recent years, this party wing is still seen as a vital constituency to win support from when going into the ANC’s internal leadership vote.

Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told Daily Maverick on Thursday:
“The President will be asking the minister [Tolashe] for a report, as it is customary and fair that when there are allegations against any individual, they be accorded an opportunity to relate their side of the matter.” DM