'Undermining of institutions and subversion of rule of law cannot continue'
Updated | By Marius van der Walt
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the undermining of institutions of democracy and the subvertion of the rule of law by some in the ANC cannot be allowed to continue.
![Cyril_Ramaphosa_GCIS](https://turntable.kagiso.io/images/cyrilrama.width-800.jpg)
Ramaphosa delivered the eulogy at the special official funeral of the late former diplomat and ANC treasurer Mendi Msimang on Saturday.
The service was held at the Christian Revival Church in Pretoria East.
Msimang held the post of ANC treasurer-general for 10 years from 1997 and also served as South Africa's High Commissioner to the UK.
He was married to former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Ramaphosa told mourners that the material temptations of political office have never been greater.
"As our people have realised, and as our movement has acknowledged, there are those among us who seek positions of authority not to serve the public good, but to advance private interests. There are those who are prepared to undermine the institutions of our young democracy, to subvert the rule of law and to steal from the people to enrich themselves.
"This cannot be countenanced and this cannot be allowed to continue."
Ramaphosa said the country is in need of public servants with the same honesty and integrity that Msimang possessed.
"We must seek, as he always did, to build consensus on the measures we must necessarily take to transform our economy and our society. We must confront, as he would have, the difficult choices that need to be made to turn around an economy that has faltered and to fix the public institutions that have been weakened. We must retain, as he would have, our focus on the overriding task to create jobs and tackle poverty.
"We must forge a social compact that is founded on the incontrovertible reality that none of us can prosper unless we all prosper. We must forge a social compact that recognises that the enormity of the challenges ahead of us require that we all pull in the same direction."
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