Mantashe: The ANC has a president 'who is not tempted to steal'
The African National Congress (ANC) National Chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, believes the party's newly-elected president Cyril Ramaphosa will keep his fingers far away from state coffers.
The ANC hosted a wreath-laying ceremony at the gravesite of OR Tambo in Wattville on Friday.
Mantashe paid tribute to the ANC's longest serving president ahead of the governing party's 106th-anniversay celebrations.
He says Ramaphosa's wealth will avert any possible suggestions of unlawfulness.
"We have elected a president who is rich. We have a president who has money and wealthy and will not be tempted to steal. He is the president of the ANC. If he steals, we are going to ask him; why do you steal because you have enough".
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Mantashe says the perception some people have of their black counterparts need to change.
"Black people can produce, black people can farm, black people can do everything, and they are not failures. That is radical economic transformation. You sweat and succeed. When you see a rich black person first question; where did he steal the money? This is terrible."
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He gave an assurance that the ANC's radical economic transformation policies, including expropriation of land without compensation, will be done in a lawful manner.
"If we expropriate land without compensation, it must not be land grabs but a systemic way of giving people land to use it productively."