Dlamini out in the cold as party prepares the sledgehammer over her head

The convicted ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini is out and no-nonsense Defence Minister Thandi Modise is in to steer the league towards its elective conference before or after June.

These are at least two shocking changes likely to emerge as the ANC cleanses itself towards its 55th national conference scheduled for 16-20 December. The road to the conference could see more wrongdoers cut off before they inflicted more damage to the party’s battered reputation.

Dlamini, a diehard Jacob Zuma supporter, was the last influential leader of this faction in the current ANC national executive committee (NEC) after Zuma’s main man, Ace Magashule, was placed on step-aside early last year. Magashule was charged with corruption and fraud stemming from the Free State R255 million asbestos roof replacement tender.

Announcing the outcomes of the weekend’s ANC NEC meeting on Monday, party treasurer general and acting secretary-general Paul Mashatile revealed Modise, Sport Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa and former terrorism accused and South African Communist Party central committee member Jenny Schreiner have been appointed into the ANCWL national task team.

The team replaced Dlamini’s NEC, which was elected in August 2015. Dlamini’s criminal conviction this month made it easy for the ANC to act against her as it prepares to let the sledgehammer fall on her head at later stage.

The ANC top brass had been asked to scrutinise Dlamini’s conviction by the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on a perjury charge rising from lying under oath on the social grants contract saga.

She will know her fate next month when magistrate Betty Khumalo delivers her sentence.

Perjury is a serious crime in SA with a minimum penalty of a fine or a year behind bars – but the maximum could vary between five and 10 years. However, experts said Dlamini was most likely to get a fine instead of a direct jail term but the fact that she was convicted at all was a significant indicator that all were equal before the law in South Africa.

Most likely, the ANC would wait for the court to finalise Dlamini’s matter before deciding to place her under the step-aside rule which applied to members who were charged with corruption and other serious crimes.

ANCWL NEC’s term of office expired in 2020 but no elective conference was organised for the past two years. When the party reminded her about this, she claimed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s supporters plotted to remove her. The NEC also received the report of its electoral committee chaired by Kgalema Motlanthe on disputes arising from the ANC local government candidates’ list last year.

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It processed 770 disputes and appeals and although the committee made determination on each case, the party appeared to play down the matter. The ANC Youth National Task Team, which replaced the moribund ANC Youth League, will hold the league’s elective national conference in June.

The league was liquidated, with over R15 million in debt, and subsequently vanished following continuous leadership squabbles. The ANC Veterans League is following a road map for its yet-to-be scheduled conference, while uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Military Veterans League’s and MK National Council’s unity conference would take place at end of April.

The ANC has also appointed new national disciplinary and disciplinary appeals committees chaired by Ralph Mgijima and Johny de Lange, respectively.

Mashatile said the NEC decided the majority of members of these committees be non-NEC members to avoid any perception of bias or conflict of interests.

– ericn@citizen.co.za