ANC’s Mabuza can of worms
Years of questionable behaviour by the ANC in Mpumalanga, under provincial chairperson David Mabuza, is the focus of a high court case expected to be heard today.
Ahigh court case in Mpumalanga, expected to be heard today, is likely to shine a spotlight on years of questionable behaviour by the ANC in the province, with a focus on the legitimacy of provincial chairperson David Mabuza, former Mpumalanga premier and now the deputy president.
The potential fallout threatens to cast serious legitimacy concerns over the province’s delegates’ decisions, including to back certain factions in the party.
The Citizen is in possession of a file of evidence compiled by a group opposed to the current Mpumalanga provincial executive committee (PEC), which they will use in their case. They hope to force the party to start on a fresh slate in Mpumalanga and to neutralise the power Mabuza allegedly still wields.
The group, led by Caiphus Malomane, accused the Mpumalanga PEC of having “violated the constitution of the ANC on all fronts”. They added that they have no faith in the ANC’s current provincial leadership as “they have blood on their heads”.
They want the PEC disbanded and the list process currently taking place to pick who will be sent to parliament and the legislature to be halted. They want a provincial task team installed independently and for the ANC’s national executive committee to take over the running of Mpumalanga “as a matter of urgency”.
The group’s evidence suggests that wholesale branch and member fraud took place in the province. Mpumalanga has more than one ANC branch per ward, which is against the party’s constitution. Mabuza’s opponents maintained he oversaw the creation of several “bogus” branches, which artificially inflated the number of delegates the province sent to the ANC’s national conference in Johannesburg last year.
According to the group’s evidence, many people appear twice on the member lists of different branches, although members can only belong to one branch at a time. Sometimes their names are slightly changed, but the identity numbers reoccur. Some members are deceased, with death certificates on file, but their votes are recorded.
The evidence includes copies of blank membership forms stamped by a bank teller at an FNB in Groblersdal, with bulk payments deposited in apparent violation of the fact that members are meant to pay the R10 membership fee personally. Affidavits on file accuse those involved of seeking to swell membership figures dishonestly.
The group wants the high court to stop ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule from “realigning” the province’s wards and branches in a process they feel is akin to a post-crime cover-up. They claim a letter to the Mpumalanga PEC, dated August 8, in which Magashule called for the merging of branches to be in line with “demarcations to build coherence around organisational systems” was an indication of his attempt to eliminate bogus branches.
If the group succeeds in having the 2016 provincial conference declared illegal by the high court, the outcome could invalidate the ANC’s national elective conference last year, which saw Cyril Ramaphosa take over as president and Mabuza become his deputy.
Mpumalanga’s delegates were decisive in that outcome and it was the first time in ANC history that the province sent the second-highest number of delegates.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe had not responded to questions by the time of going to print. –
Some dead ANC members apparently voted.