Limpopo leaders Florence Radzilani and Danny Msiza back at work

ANC Limpopo provincial treasurer Danny Msiza and deputy chairperson Florence Radzilani have been welcomed back into the provincial executive committee (PEC).

The decision was made at a special PEC meeting on Tuesday, following a decision by the party’s national executive committee (NEC) that Msiza and Radzilani could continue in their leadership roles.

The two were implicated in a report by advocate Terry Motau on wide-scale looting, which lead to the collapse of the VBS Mutual Bank in 2018.

They stepped down amid the claims, with law enforcement agencies investigating the matter and the ANC hauling them before its integrity commission.

Two years after the fact, they still had not been charged and the NEC resolved they could return to their positions.

Provincial secretary Soviet Lekganyane said the pair was welcomed back during Tuesday’s meeting.

‘Nothing has happened’

“The rationale was that it was a decision of the NEC to allow the two comrades to resume their duties because they stepped aside for a period of almost two years and nothing has happened,” he said.

Lekganyane said the ANC found itself in a dilemma, in that Msiza and Radzilani were not charged in the two years they had been on suspension.

“We could not even bring disciplinary charges against them because we don’t have conclusive evidence to the allegations,” he said.

According to the provincial secretary, the integrity commission said the pair must remain on suspension on the basis of the Motau report, but that report has been successfully overturned by Msiza.

“There is no other report that implicates him,” he said.

The high court set aside Motau’s findings against Msiza, ruling that failing to afford the treasurer the right to procedural fairness before releasing the report on VBS was unlawful, unconstitutional and violated his constitutional rights.

Lekganyane denied the decision to reinstate the VBS-linked duo was inconsistent with the ANC NEC’s tough stance on corruption.

The ANC said in a statement that Msiza and Radzilani “recommitted themselves to serve the organisation and people of the province with utmost humility”.

“Their resumption of duties and responsibilities will, to a large measure, assist in our efforts to bring about stability in the ANC in the province,” the ANC said.

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