JOHANNESBURG - ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe says the party must get rid of corruption if it wants to be taken seriously by voters.

Mantashe was speaking at a ceremony honouring late Communist Party leader Joe Slovo in Soweto, a short while ago.

"The biggest challenge facing the ANC today more than policies more than programs is to rid itself of the image of being corrupt. And when it rid itself of corruption it will appreciate the fact that state capture is a reality where people want to appoint DG in a rush, want to appoint boards of SOE in a rush to put their own people," says the ANC Chairperson.

"It is corruption that kind of activity. Because what you are doing you appoint the president at Nasrec and you put brackets around him. That is a corruption activity. My own view comrade is that we have a responsibility with the provinces with the NEC to deal with these tendencies," says Mantashe.