Some candidates on the ANC’s MPs list raise eyebrows

The deployment and nomination of ANC cadres onto the 2019 parliamentary list reflected the views of ANC members, ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini said yesterday.

Addressing the media on the sidelines of the ANC’s leadership visit to Shembe Church’s Khenana Holy Mountain in NDwendwe, KwaZulu-Natal, Dlamini, whose addition to the MPs list has sparked controversy, said: “We do not represent ourselves. We are not born ministers but merely given an opportunity to serve.

“The list is a reflection of an expression of ANC members at grassroots.”

Minister of Women in the Presidency, Dlamini is among controversial figures who have made it to the ANC list, despite the party having come up with rigorous criteria to be met by prospective MPs after the 2019 elections.

In terms of the criteria, cadres should enhance ANC integrity; be in good standing; have no history of ill-discipline or corruption; not have breached the party code of conduct; or have a criminal record after 1996 resulting in a sentence of 12 months or more without an option to pay a fine.

In the finalised ANC list of about 200 members – now subject of further vetting – to be sent to parliament after the May polls, Dlamini, former ministers Malusi Gigaba, Faith Muthambi and Mosebenzi Zwane, former North West premier Supra Mahumapelo, and Environmental Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane, all made it to the list.

Dlamini and Gigaba’s names have raised eyebrows due to court judgments against them.

As mineral resources minister, Zwane has been exposed by the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture for supporting the Gupta family.

Muthambi is said to have meddled in the running of the Government Communications and Information Systems.

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