Mabuza to return as deputy president

Despite the ANC’s insistence that the 22 people identified for conduct that might have brought the party into disrepute would only be able to meet with the party’s internal integrity commission between today and Tuesday, the ethic’s body reportedly acquiesced to David Mabuza’s request to expedite his meeting.

According to City Press, Mabuza met with the integrity commission on Friday to plead his case.

This after Mabuza requested that his swearing-in as an MP, which was scheduled for last week, be postponed following the release of the report in which the aforementioned 22 problematic candidates were identified.

In a statement, Mabuza said he wanted to first deal with the report that found him to have brought the ANC into disrepute. The ANC statement added Mabuza had requested his swearing-in be postponed out of respect for the ANC’s institutions and processes.

The publication reports that Mabuza requested to expedite his meeting with integrity commission because waiting to meet them between today and Tuesday would have taken him out of the running for the deputy position.

The ethics body will only provide Luthuli House with its findings next week after it meets with the remaining candidates on the list.

“We are meeting with another 20 people, if they come, so we have not yet formulated what we would hand over to the national executive committee,” said integrity committee chairperson George Mashamba.

The publication also went to allege that Mabuza had learned that the list of the identified problematic candidates had been doctored at Luthuli House after it was handed over to leadership and this was confirmed by the commission which told him that it could not help him. The commission reportedly added that the original list did not contain his name and a few others.

According to the publication, Mabuza believes he is being sabotaged by parties who feel betrayed by his Nasrec 2017 decision to throw Mpumalanga’s support behind Ramaphosa.

He is expected to raise this issue at this weekend’s top six meeting.

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