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Deputy President David Mabuza defended the ANC and its members in the Cabinet when they were accused of failing the country while advancing their interests.
The ANC and its members came under attack for being implicated in the State Capture report.
Several high-ranking officials of the party have been implicated in corrupt activities involving millions of rands, with few facing the music.
Mabuza said the reason the ANC-led government took the initiative to appoint the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture was that it wanted to get rid of fraud and corruption.
Responding to questions in the National Assembly on Thursday afternoon, Mabuza said fraud and corruption were a pandemic, which was not only bad for the party but also for the country.
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"There’s an undertaking on our side that we really want to deal with it once and for all because it will strain our development. There is a commitment on our side to really deal with the findings of the Zondo Commission of Inquiry on State Capture and not for the sake of the ANC but for the sake of the country," he said.
He said the fact that many of their members were implicated did not define who the ANC was.
"So, the commission is going to speak about us, and we're prepared to listen to that. But we will not allow our failures to define us. We're going to learn from these failures and do better," he said.
"This is a phenomenon. Corruption and fraud must be wiped out of our vocabulary. It must not happen. Corruption and fraud know no colour."
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DA parliamentary chief whip Siviwe Gwarube accused the ANC leadership of protecting corrupt officials.
She insisted that if the ANC was serious about holding those who were implicated to account, Mabuza should commit to supporting the DA’s initiative of forming a parliamentarian committee to hold the presidency to account and to also support the legislation to govern the coalition government.
But Mabuza said he was a member of Parliament and could not dictate what Parliament should do. He said they were willing to cooperate with Parliament in holding the executive to account.
Mabuza also defended Cabinet ministers who had failed to appear before various parliamentary committees and instead sent their deputies.
He said the presentation that was made by President Cyril Ramaphosa about the composition of the Cabinet was a collective agreement that meant all ministers and public entities were part of Parliament.
Mabuza added:
This came after several members of Parliament questioned some ministers' commitment to accountability.
Last week, minister of tourism Lindiwe Sisulu was accused of failing to appear before the portfolio committee on tourism to account.
But she denied that she failed to appear before the committee because she wanted to undermine them.
In the statement responding to the committee’s decision to invoke a legal route, Sisulu said she viewed the developments as "unfortunate and unnecessary".
But Mabuza said all members would be there to answer questions, but the mutual understanding was that some days must be reserved for Cabinet and also allow them to do their business.
Mabuza added:
"That's why the president has appointed the minister and the deputy minister so that they could be able to help one another. So, I beg you to accept it. Deputy ministers represent the ministers, they represent the departments and they are also members of the executive."
Responding to the question of service delivery, Mabuza said political in-fighting in municipalities had destabilised and denied the society basic service delivery.
He reiterated the statement issued by Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma that there were over 66 municipalities which had been dubbed as dysfunctional.
He detailed they had identified numerous problems as causes.
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Mabuza said the problem ranges from political interference, irregular appointments of people in those municipalities and interference in the procurement processes.
He added political in-fighting played a huge role in poor service delivery because parties kept on removing each other from power.
"There is no stability in those municipalities. If you take a look at Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, sewage is flowing all over the streets while politicians are fighting instead of rendering services. So, I am saying without accusing those leading the municipalities that if we were focusing on services, society would be happy. Now, they are suffering."
