The ANC’s Integrity Commission has delivered a damning interim finding to the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC), recommending that Sisisi Tolashe — the president of the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) and former minister of social development — step aside from all responsibilities, Africa Daily has learnt.
The report was submitted and discussed at the ANC’s NEC meeting on Saturday.
The commission said it was not convinced by Tolashe’s explanation over a string of serious allegations. The most explosive is that she accepted two luxury Chinese-made BAIC Beijing X55 sport utility vehicles (SUVs) — worth roughly R1 million and donated by Chinese officials to the ANCWL — and quietly registered them in the names of her children, Nanilethu and Kanyisa Tolashe, rather than in those of the league.
The integrity commission’s interim finding comes barely a week after President Cyril Ramaphosa axed her from his cabinet on Wednesday, May 14 2026. Insiders say that despite the damning report, some officials were still defending her, arguing she had not been charged in a court of competent jurisdiction and therefore the step-aside rule could not apply.
An NEC official said those who opposed her stepping aside also argued that removing her from party responsibilities would amount to prejudging her guilt before she had the opportunity to prove her innocence.
The source said the commission had also tabled a report against Minister in the Presidency Maropene Ramokgopa after similar allegations were made against her. “But her case was different because she was cleared of any wrongdoing early on, as the vehicles had not been donated to her personally but had been secured by her partner,” said the source.
A confidential ANCWL presentation to ANC officials, dated Thursday, May 8 2026 and seen by Africa Daily, lifts the lid on how the league’s own internal structures grappled with the embarrassment. The document, compiled by the ANCWL secretary general and addressed to the ANC mother body, reveals that Tolashe appeared before the ANCWL national working committee (NWC) on Saturday, April 25 2026 and was asked to recuse herself while the matter was deliberated.
The presentation records that Tolashe admitted receiving the two SUVs on behalf of the ANCWL, acknowledged making a wrong decision by handing them to her children, and “profusely apologised” before committing to return the vehicles. The ANCWL national executive committee (NEC), which met the following day, accepted her apology but resolved that officials must seek legal counsel before the returned cars could be registered into the ANCWL’s asset register.
Notably, the document reveals that one of the two vehicles had already been sold — a detail that deepened the crisis inside league structures. The submission seeks urgent guidance from the ANC secretary general and the party’s national working committee on how to “navigate the matter within ANC structures, restore confidence and manage the court of public opinion”, citing the serious reputational risk to the party ahead of the November 2026 local government elections.
The vehicle scandal, while totemic, was far from Tolashe’s only problem. Criminal charges were laid against her at the Cape Town Central police station by ActionSA MP Dereleen James, who alleged she had misled Parliament by failing to declare the luxury gifts. The Democratic Alliance (DA) filed a second ethics complaint with Parliament’s joint committee on ethics in April 2026, adding to one it had lodged in October 2025.
Further allegations that accumulated over her ministerial tenure included: the irregular appointment of a 22-year-old — alleged to be the niece of her special adviser — to a chief-of-staff post paying R1.4 million a year, amid claims of falsified qualifications; the unlawful extension of director-general Peter Netshipale’s contract to five years in defiance of a cabinet directive approving only a one-year term; investigators finding it “highly unlikely” that her electronic signature had been used to authorise the irregular contract without her knowledge; and a leaked audio recording in which she allegedly told ANC MPs she intended to dodge certain parliamentary questions.
A former state-funded employee — appointed as a food aide — was allegedly deployed as a nanny at Tolashe’s East London home and reportedly compelled to hand over half her R15,670 monthly government salary to Tolashe’s daughter. Tolashe denied personal wrongdoing across the board and blamed others, including former departmental spokesperson Lumka Oliphant, who fired back with explosive counter-claims.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) welcomed her dismissal as “a long overdue act of accountability”, saying the litany of alleged misconduct — including “misuse of public funds, undeclared luxury gifts, improper hiring practices and the use of departmental staff for personal purposes” — should have triggered action far sooner.
‘Axed despite explaining herself’
Ramaphosa said he received Tolashe’s written report and met with her before concluding that her conduct was incompatible with the standards expected of members of the executive. The Sowetan reported on Friday, May 15 2026 that she was dismissed even after she “explained herself” — an outcome that underscored just how seriously the integrity commission’s interim finding had been received by the party leadership.
