Internal affairs: Do South Africa’s largest political parties effectively police corruption?

This report evaluates the internal anti-corruption mechanisms of South Africa's three largest political parties: the African National Congress (ANC), the Democratic Alliance (DA), and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). It concludes that while formal policies exist, their practical application is often undermined by political considerations, hierarchical structures, and a preference for party solidarity over probity.

• South African political parties have established formal policies and mechanisms to combat internal corruption, but the enforcement of these rules is inconsistent across and within the parties, often influenced by internal political cultures.
• The African National Congress (ANC) possesses a detailed constitutional framework for misconduct, including an integrity commission, yet it frequently avoids disciplining members by waiting for formal court convictions, creating a loophole to protect senior figures.
• The ANC has repeatedly attempted to address corruption through ideological and moral education, such as the concept of the 'new cadre' and 'organisational renewal', rather than through hard sanctions.
• The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) maintains a highly hierarchical and autocratic disciplinary structure. While it has a Code of Conduct and Revolutionary Discipline prohibiting corruption, there is little public evidence of these systems being used to probe senior leadership, such as in the VBS Mutual Bank looting allegations.
• The Democratic Alliance (DA) emphasizes clean governance as a core brand and has shown more willingness to sanction members for misbehavior than the ANC or EFF, though its disciplinary processes are sometimes perceived as tools for internal political battles.
• Across the major parties, there is a tendency to prioritize party reputation and solidarity over the enforcement of ethical behavior, with some members fearing that exposing widespread corruption would be too divisive.

APA

February, J. (2019). Internal affairs: Do South Africa’s largest political parties effectively police corruption? Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-30.pdf

Chicago

February, Judith. Internal affairs: Do South Africa’s largest political parties effectively police corruption? Institute for Security Studies, 2019. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-30.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=February |first1=Judith |title=Internal affairs: Do South Africa’s largest political parties effectively police corruption? |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=October 2019 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-30.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{february2019internal, author = {February, Judith}, title = {{Internal affairs: Do South Africa’s largest political parties effectively police corruption?}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2019}, month = oct, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-30.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }