FILE PICTURE: ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe wipes his face while speaking at a news conference called by the party to react to the findings of the Nkandla report in Johannesburg, Thursday, 20 March 2014. Public Protector Thuli Madonsela released her report on costly security upgrades at President Jacob Zuma's home on Wednesday, saying Zuma should have asked questions about the scale, costs, and affordability of security upgrades which could end up being as much as R240 million. She found that Zuma and his family unduly benefited from upgrades. Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA
When it comes to political ghosts, who you gonna call? Well, if it’s fake members of the ANC, you need to summon the national executive committee.
And apparently they’re going to have their work cut out for them, busting ghosts in branches in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga.
Investigations into allegations of ghost membership have, according to the ANC, started in earnest and are expected to be wrapped up before the end of September.
The offices of secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize are working together on the probe ahead of the party’s national elective conference later this year.
Mkhize said: “There are suspicions of people who have fraudulently used a bank stamp to make their forms look legit.”
It was important the issue was resolved because “we cannot allow branches to go to their branch general councils with unresolved queries”.
The Citizen can reveal that five of the 111 KwaZulu-Natal regions filed official queries with the office of the secretary-general.
In Limpopo, Mantashe’s office was investigating Mopani. The region, which has experienced tampering with membership forms and the shooting, injuring and killing of branch members, is due to hold its elective conference next week.
Recently, ANC branch activist Bigboy Nkuna was shot and killed in Relela village near Tzaneen.
Mantashe recently froze the activities of 21 branches from Giyani amid problems involving improper presentation of membership forms.
The branches were later subjected to re-auditing after disgruntled members lodged complaints with Mantashe’s office. – news@citizen.co.za
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