Anger at ANC candidate choices
Court challenges loom as branches cry foul over the culling of popular candidates
ANC provincial leaders have been accused of gatekeeping and manipulating votes at branch general meetings, with some ANC members threatening to challenge the party’s candidates list selections for the upcoming local government elections in the courts.
This comes as the ANC’S national leaders are trying to quell fires, with party members protesting and calling for an investigation into the system.
In Kwazulu-natal, branches from the ethekwini region have staged protests at the provincial office over the removal of first-choice candidates nominated by branches, and the culling of councillors charged with corruption from the list.
These include former Durban mayor Zandile Gumede, who was removed from the proportional representation list, as were six ANC councillors charged alongside her over a R380-million Durban Solid Waste tender.
In a letter to Sibongile Khathi, the convener of the regional task team running the ANC in ethekwini, Cyril Xaba, the chairperson of the provincial list committee, said it recommended that councillors Thembi De Lange, Nomthandazo Shabalala, Sduduzo Khuzwayo, Mondli Mthembu, Bhekokwakhe Phewa and Mthokozisi Nojiyeza be “excluded from the list”.
This was being done, Xaba said, in terms of rule 17 of the ANC constitution.
All six councillors were arrested in connection with the solid waste tender and are out on bail, together with Gumede; they will appear in the high court in Durban on charges of corruption, fraud and racketeering on 30 November.
Branches in the region have also rejected the rejigging of lists to reflect second- and third-choice nominees ahead of their first choices.
ANC members from ward 101 in Cato Manor said their choice for councillor, Siyabonga Mkhize, had received 309 votes at the nominations meeting.
When Mkhize reported at the Moses Mabhida Stadium to sign his nomination form, he found that Siyabonga Sibisi — the branch’s third-place choice, who received only 13 votes — had been chosen.
Recently, deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte was warned by the Ahmed Timol branch 127 in Roodepoort, Johannesburg that its secretary — Mboneni Tabane, who was arrested as one of the instigators in the insurrection against the state — has made it to the party list submitted to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) on Monday.
Branch chairperson Bhekizitha Radebe and ANC Women’s League branch secretary Nonhlanhla Madlala wrote in a letter that they were shocked and dismayed when they learned that Tabane was identified as an instigator of the unrest and surrounding areas in Roodepoort.
“This has left many members of the organisation in the branch with seriously unanswered questions related to this matter. The organisation was brought into disrepute in an unimaginable way. We, as members of the ANC, have a responsibility to maintain the integrity of the ANC in the broader society,” the letter reads.
On 2 August, the same branch lodged a dispute with Nomantu Ralehoko, chairperson of the provincial dispute-resolution committee, claiming that some of its members did not appear on the party’s membership list, allegedly because of gatekeeping.
“In the same membership system, there are some members who paid [membership fees] and [were] rejected by the branch secretary without valid reasons. We see the process is about to be closed while we are still waiting for the response on the letter that we have already written to the provincial secretary [Jacob Khawe] regarding this issue. We humbly request that the provincial dispute resolution committee intervene on this matter, since we also want [our] BGM [branch general meeting] to nominate ward and PR [councillor] candidates like other branches of the ANC,” the letter reads.
Madlala told the Mail & Guardian that the branch never received a response from the ANC. On Wednesday, community members marched to the regional offices of the ANC in Johannesburg to protest against Tabane’s candidature.
Tabane was arrested on 18 July and charged with incitement to commit public violence. His first court appearance was on 20 July, according to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Twitter account.
The NPA account states that Tabane was “one of the alleged instigators of the recent violent unrest”. He was released on R5000 bail by the Roodepoort magistrate’s court; the prosecutor did not oppose bail.
Tabane’s bail conditions specify that he is not to interfere with state witnesses, he must report to Roodepoort police on Fridays between 8am and 8pm, he is not to leave Gauteng without permission from the investigating officer, and he must hand over his passport.
In Kwazulu-natal, a group of ANC members from ward 3 in emaqadini marched to the provincial offices on 17 August, claiming that the process had been rigged.
In the Lower South Coast, an ANC member in ward 8 in Ray Nkonyeni region wrote to the provincial ANC to inform the party that he had been
‘Branches all rushed in one week to submit disputes —and it was the week of the deadline
robbed of his candidature. Instead, an ANC member with a criminal record was submitted to the ANC candidates list.
According to Njabulo Nhlumayo, he was chosen by the community in all five voting districts in the region; however, he learnt that his name had been removed.
Nhlumayo told the M&G that he submitted a complaint to the provincial list committee (PLC) on 13 August, but the matter was not addressed.
Lower South Coast regional leader Xolani Luthuli said the region had received several complaints from wards relating to the pitfalls of the selection process for councillors.
“Where the mistakes began in our region is with branches delaying completion of the process. Many branches, including ward 8, had branch general meetings way earlier and there were times where [the] PLC was completely in control. What brought us to this state is when branches all rushed in one week to submit disputes — and it was the week of the deadline. Had branches dealt with processes in advance, and moved ahead like how the guidelines are saying, then we would not have this problem,” Luthuli said.
In a letter dated 20 August, shortly before the extended national executive committee sat to conclude the matter of its IEC candidates list, Duarte wrote to provincial secretaries informing them no further objections could be investigated, heard and ruled on before candidates’ registration.
She said the PLC would have to follow up on all outstanding and serious disputes. Duarte added that, should the elections be postponed, the party would open up its candidate registration and all outstanding matters.
In an interview with the M&G in July, ANC national disputes committee head, Nomvula Mokonyane, said the committee has identified that members have attempted to manipulate the system.
She said, in some cases, the IDS of members who attend the BGMS and biennial meetings — meetings to elect branch executive committees and preferred candidates for regional conferences — are scanned more than once.
As a result, hundreds of branch and biennial meetings have been disqualified and have had to be re-run.
The new online system was introduced in 2019 to curb the party’s problems of gatekeeping, but some members have been denied membership as a result.
The ANC had given branches until early August to finalise their candidates list. Each branch was tasked with selecting four candidates to undergo a cycle of vetting by citizens before its list was submitted to the provincial executive committee.
In the July interview, Mokonyane said that although the system has had some glitches, it was being used effectively in the Northern Cape. Some of the regions the ANC will be paying close attention to in terms of the system’s roll-out are the OR Tambo region in the Eastern Cape and some regions in Limpopo, all of which are due for conferences.
Mokonyane said her biggest headaches are in the Western Cape and Lower South Coast, which have fallen behind in adapting to the system, with the latter the weakest in terms of compliance.
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