By Zukile Majova
Her husband Bandile Masuku and Khusela Sangoni, also implicated in the scandal, have returned to senior ANC roles despite public outrage.
The African National Congress says it is serious about fighting corruption. But how can we believe that when it keeps promoting people who were caught up in some of the worst scandals of our time?
The recent election of Loyiso Masuku as the new chairperson of the ANC’s Greater Johannesburg Region is a perfect example.
Masuku, a long-serving councillor and former Member of the Mayoral Committee in Johannesburg, is not new to controversy. She was among the high-profile figures linked to the notorious Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) looting scandal in 2020. At the time, billions of rands meant for emergency healthcare services were siphoned off in dodgy tenders, and Masuku’s name was caught in the storm.
She is the wife of former Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku, who was also forced to step aside when the scandal exploded. At the time, the Masukus were close associates of King Thandisizwe Diko and his wife Khusela Diko, the then-presidential spokesperson. The Dikos were awarded a R125-million PPE contract through Royal Bhaca Projects, with allegations swirling that political connections played a major role in securing the deal.
The ANC Gauteng Provincial Executive Committee asked all three, Loyiso, Bandile and Khusela, to step aside while their conduct was investigated. The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) got involved. The media dug deep. The public was angry. And rightly so, this was at a time when healthcare workers were dying due to lack of proper protection, and hospitals were overwhelmed.
Although Loyiso Masuku was eventually cleared by the ANC’s integrity processes and not directly implicated in criminal wrongdoing by the SIU, the damage to public trust was already done. Just being linked to such a scandal should have been enough to end a political career in a country struggling with corruption.
But not in the ANC.
Instead of being sidelined, Masuku has now emerged more powerful than ever, defeating Dada Morero, the current mayor of Johannesburg, in a hotly contested election. She received 184 votes to Morero’s 149, and now stands as the party’s most senior figure in the country’s largest metro.
And let’s be honest, this positions her as the ANC’s likely mayoral candidate in 2026, if not sooner. The party may even move to replace Morero before the elections to give her a head start. If that happens, she will be presented as the “new broom” to clean up the city, even though many voters will remember her as part of the dirty laundry.
What makes it worse is that while the ANC props up Masuku, its opponents have already hit the ground running. ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba, a former Johannesburg mayor, is on a full-blown campaign to reclaim the city.
The Democratic Alliance has brought out the big guns, with Helen Zille set to campaign alongside local leaders. Compared to these heavyweights, Masuku seems untested. But in the ANC’s world, loyalty and connections matter more than experience or public image.
The broader picture is even more worrying. Masuku is not the only one to bounce back after being tainted by the Covid looting scandal.
Her husband, Bandile Masuku, was fired in 2020 by then Gauteng Premier David Makhura after the SIU found he had failed to uphold his legal responsibilities as MEC for Health. Contracts worth R2 billion were flagged as irregular.
Bandile took the matter to court, where parts of the SIU’s findings were thrown out for lacking evidence of intent, but the damage was already done.
Yet today, he is a senior figure in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, chairing the committee on community safety. That’s right, the same man accused of failing to safeguard public funds is now responsible for oversight on crime prevention and community protection.
Khusela Diko, now known as Khusela Sangoni, also weathered the storm. Today, she is a member of parliament and chairperson of the portfolio committee on communications and digital technologies. Last month, she was elected to the ANC’s powerful National Working Committee, a seat at the heart of decision-making in the party.
All three have been “cleared” in one form or another. But the public memory is not so easily erased. These are people who were in the room when the country’s health system was being looted. Whether they signed the papers or not, their names are forever tied to one of the most disgraceful periods in our democratic history.
And here lies the ANC’s biggest problem.
President Cyril Ramaphosa wants to present himself as the leader who is cleaning up the party. He speaks about renewal, about ethics, about the “step aside” rule that is meant to push out those who damage the party’s image.
But if those same people come back a year or two later with even more power, what’s the point?
The step aside rule is starting to look like a tool to manage internal politics, not to serve justice. It is used to remove certain individuals at specific moments, but it has no lasting consequences. Once the storm dies down, the same people return, sometimes even stronger.
And so the public grows more cynical. They see the same faces recycled after every scandal. They hear the same promises of accountability, followed by the same inaction.
If the ANC truly wants to win back trust in 2026, it must do more than rotate the same names through different positions. It must show that being implicated in corruption, even if not convicted, comes with permanent consequences.
Otherwise, Ramaphosa’s “renewal” agenda will be remembered as little more than a public relations exercise.
And voters will continue to look elsewhere for real change.
Pictured above: Caption: Loyiso Masuku is the new ANC regional chairperson for Johannesburg
Image Source: Loyiso Masuku
