State capture squad make ANC cut
The ruling party seems to have failed to remove tainted people from its parliamentary lists
Top ANC national executive committee (NEC) members Zweli Mkhize, Bathabile Dlamini and Gwede Mantashe are likely to make it onto the list of party leaders destined for parliament, despite being implicated in corruption.
On Thursday, the NEC met for a second time to finalise the list, which was presented to it on Monday.
The list was then taken to the party’s top brass on Wednesday to remove the names of people who were on both the national and provincial lists and those who did not pass the vetting process.
“The NEC will today [Thursday] ... review the integrity committee reports and its recommendations on people who have made the list. Then the NEC will decide on who should be removed depending on the recommendation by the committee and whether on the adoption of the com- mittee’s decision those people fall foul on the guidelines of the electoral committee,” according to an NEC member.
But the M&G understands that none of the high-profile leaders implicated in state capture and corruption were removed from the list reviewed by the top seven on Wednesday.
Insiders who attended the extended NEC meeting on Monday said Mkhize appeared second on the list of province to national candidates, while Dlamini was voted fourth on the same list.
An NEC member close to the talks said the vetting process by the party’s electoral committee headed by Kgalema Motlanthe had not concluded its work and would work on the list after it is sent to the Electoral Committee of South Africa (IEC).
Some of those on the list were accused of wrongdoing in the Zondo commission’s state capture report.
Parties represented in parliament have until Friday to submit their lists of candidates, while new parties will have to submit signatures in support of their candidature to make it to the ballot for the 29 May elections.
The ANC list could spell trouble for the party, which has previously committed to not having compromised individuals included in parliament and provincial legislatures.
In December last year, after consulting party veteran Mavuso Msimang, secretary general Fikile Mbalula said in a statement at the time that the ANC leadership would act with urgency to address the unethical behaviour and ill-discipline of its members, including leaders.
“We are determined that only members whose reputations are beyond reproach will be included in our list of candidates for parliament and provincial legislatures. This means that those implicated by the Zondo commission will not be included in our lists if their names have not been cleared by the ANC integrity commission,” he said.
Insiders said other compromised individuals on the list include Andile Lungisa — who served a prison sentence for assaulting Democratic Alliance councillor Rano Kayser — and Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Zizi Kodwa.
The M&G understands that corruption-accused former Durban mayor Zandile Gumede was also on the list of individuals who are in the safe zone of party leaders destined for parliament.
The safe zone refers to the 130 party members on the list who are likely to be ANC MPS and could also be chosen by President Cyril Ramaphosa to be part of his executive.
Gumede, who recently returned to politics with the blessing of ANC’S top leaders, had to step aside after she was charged in 2019 for, among other things, fraud, corruption and racketeering relating to a R320million Durban Solid Waste tender.
She is accused of personally receiving R2 881 350 in kickbacks for ensuring predetermined businesses benefitted from city waste contracts.
The state has further accused the ANC ethekwini region leader of receiving a R100 000 “donation” from three of Gumede’s co-accused. The trial is still sitting.
The third part of the state capture commission’s report said that upon further investigation, authorities were likely to find evidence that Mantashe was corrupt in dealings with logistics company Bosasa, which paid for upgrades to his home when he was secretary general of the ANC.
Mantashe, who took the report on review, said there was no prima facie case or evidence against him in the report and therefore he would not step aside from his ANC position.
Mkhize was implicated in the Digital Vibes Covid-19 looting scandal and resigned as health minister as a result. He has not been charged.
NEC members Khusela Diko, Nonceba Mhlauli, Joy Maimela, Supra Mahumapelo and Zuko
Godlimpi have also made the cut but are not implicated in wrongdoing.
Sources told the M&G that those who did not make the list include Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and ANC Women’s League deputy president Lungi Gcabashe.
ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-motsiri said the party would only comment on its lists after they had been submitted to the IEC on Friday.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) were in the process of submitting their lists on Thursday.
IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa said this week that the party’s national council had finalised its lists on Monday and that it would submit its paperwork for all nine provinces and parliament on Thursday.
The party had taken steps to ensure that young people and women were represented in the top 10 of each of its lists to ensure that it was “balanced” in terms of age and gender, said Hlabisa, who will be the party’s presidential candidate. Provincial chairperson Thami Ntuli will stand as premier in Kwazulu-natal.
Newcomers Rise Mzansi and Build One South Africa (Bosa) will contest the elections nationally and in all nine provinces, having collected the requisite number of signatures to make the ballot.
Bosa leader Mmusi Maimane said the party had to “hustle” for the signatures to comply with the IEC regulation to participate in the elections.
He said many people viewed these as merely a signature exercise, a deposit exercise and a compliance exercise, but that the situation was more complex than that.
The conditions imposed on new parties were not the same as those for parties already in parliament.
Parties already in parliament had only needed 1 000 signatures, far lower than the requirement of nearly 48000 signatures for a new party to stand nationally and the provinces.
“Previously a new party needed only 1000 signatures of support to qualify to contest elections. However, the new Electoral Amendment Act has radically hiked this number up in a sinister effort to stymie competition and political choice,” Maimane said.
“We are challenging the entire Act in the constitutional court, which will be heard on a date after the 29 May elections.”
Maimane said that despite Bosa having met the threshold, it was an “unjustifiably high burden” for new entrants, a number of whom had to drop out of the race. Among these is Roger Jardine’s Change Starts Now.
Maimane said Bosa would field 120 candidates across all election lists and had received hundreds of applications from people wanting to become representatives of the party.
Although new parties Bosa and Rise Mzansi made the deadline, it appears that the National Freedom Party (NFP), which has been torn apart by internal battles since the death in 2021 of its founder, Zanele Magwaza-msibi, may not be able to submit a candidate list on time.
The party did hold an elective conference in December, but its outcome has been challenged — along with the recognition of its new leadership by the IEC — in court, with the matter due to be heard on Friday, the deadline day for list submission.
The NFP has existed since 2011 and plays a role in provincial and local government politics in Kwazulunatal, and holds one seat nationally, but the mess it has found itself in may see it disappear after 29 May, if it does not submit lists in time.
Veteran MP Munzoor Shaik Imam said on Thursday that he did not believe the NFP would make the deadline because of the legal drama taking place between the factions.
“They are in court fighting on the very day they are supposed to submit the party lists,” he said.
The IEC did not respond to queries about the status of the NFP.
‘Nothing has been changed’ and the
‘state capture names remain on the list’