Concern over ‘toxic effect of money’ and vote-buying
ANC presidential candidate Lindiwe Sisulu has become the latest high-ranking ANC leader to express her concern about the toxic effect that money could have on the ANC’s elective conference.
She is hoping that delegates at the crucial conference starting this Saturday will consider the future of the governing party and the country when they cast their votes on who will succeed President Jacob Zuma as the next party leader.
In an interview with Independent Media, Sisulu urged delegates to put the values of the ANC and the interests of the country first when they cast their votes.
“I took that to heart when I ran my campaign, to return to those values because I have been very worried about the effect of money in our campaign because it has a very negative influence ultimately.
“When people become used to it (money), it becomes so much easier (to be corrupted) beyond the elections,” she said yesterday.
Sisulu’s statements come as allegations of vote-buying and manipulation of the branch nomination process intensified.
ANC chief whip in Parliament Jackson Mthembu claimed in several tweets yesterday that regional secretaries in some provinces were trying to “allocate fraudulent delegates to branches that have failed to hold BGMs (branch general meetings)”.
Mthembu stated in a subsequent tweet that attempts to “replace” Cyril Ramaphosa’s branch delegates where he had received nominations “had been fought viciously by our branches”.
Sisulu said she was gravely concerned about the allegations of vote-buying.
Her views came amid court cases that threatened to put the credibility of the conference in question. Disgruntled ANC Free State members yesterday charged that the elective conference was in danger of being declared unlawful and its outcomes successfully challenged in court.
Also yesterday, the Eastern Cape High Court dismissed an application brought by 11 unhappy party members to nullify the conference that elected Oscar Mabuyane as chairperson in October.
ANC stalwarts and veterans, on the other hand, appealed to delegates attending the national conference to use the historical moment to change the governing party’s trajectory and return it to its values and principles.
“We specifically call on you as NEC members to provide leadership and encourage delegates at the conference to withhold their votes from those who have been implicated in wrongdoing and who have done nothing to clear their names,” they said in a statement.
ANC presidential hopeful Mathews Phosa’s campaign team has withdrawn its urgent application to nullify the outcome of the disputed Mpumalanga provincial general council (PGC), which endorsed “unity” ahead of the party’s national elective conference.
Lawyers for the two warring Mpumalanga factions of Premier David Mabuza and Phosa reportedly opted for internal mediation.
Advocate Dali Mpofu, for Ronnie Malomane, who brought the application before court, told South Gauteng High Court Judge Edwin Molahlehi that the “parties have found each other”.
Phosa, a former ANC treasurer, wanted the Mpumalanga PGC and the branches that voted for “unity” instead of their preferred candidates to be declared null and void, and that the provincial executive committee be barred from attending the national elective conference.
Mabuza supporters gathered outside the party headquarters, Luthuli House, in central Johannesburg, singing his praises before making their way to the court.
Mpumalanga is the second-biggest province after KwaZulu-Natal in terms of numbers of delegates who will attend the conference.
Phosa is among the seven presidential hopefuls vying to clinch the ANC top job and replace President Jacob Zuma.
The other six are Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, former AU Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete, ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize, and Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe.