Motlanthe to lay bare ANC’s electoral skulduggery

A number of ANC politicians, including Cabinet ministers, MECs, parliamentarians and councillors, could be probed for misconduct after they allegedly manipulated party candidate lists during last November’s local government elections.

The politicians could be named and shamed before being hauled before the party’s disciplinary committee. At least 39 senior politicians in North West alone have been identified as participants in the electoral cheating that saw legitimate candidates scratched off the lists.

ANC electoral committee chair Kgalema Motlanthe asked for a list of the alleged culprits. The names were expected to appear from the reports of the provincial list committees, to be submitted to the electoral committee at Luthuli House.

In addition to their reports on their findings relating to disputes and appeals received from aggrieved communities and sidelined candidates, the provincial list committees (PLCs) must submit a list of the manipulators and the allegations against them.

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The North West PLC recently found at least 39 senior ANC leaders, including Cabinet ministers, MECs, MPs and MPLs, as well as individuals, directly participated in the municipal lists manipulation and bypassed the democratic nomination process.

The ANC planned to fire all illegally enlisted councillors countrywide and reinstate those elected by communities. This could trigger a series of by-elections that could keep the Electoral Commission busy. Motlanthe gave the PLCs until next Tuesday to submit their final reports to his committee.

He warned the PLCs they were not authorised to recall any councillor or issue instructions for by-elections because this was the responsibility of the ANC national executive committee and other party constitutional structures.

This move vindicated the North West ANC interim provincial committee coordinator, Hlomane Chauke, who chastised the province’s PLC leadership for illegally instructing municipal managers to remove the “parachuted” councillors.

“The PLC lacks jurisdiction to write letters to an organ of state,” he said. Chauke said the interim provincial committee had resolved to disband the PLC and haul its chair, Lorna Maloney, and her deputy, Joe Mboweni, before a disciplinary committee.

They were accused of putting the ANC into disrepute with their actions, which included writing letters instructing the municipal manager to remove the affected councillors.

The ANC would write to the municipalities informing them to disregard the PLC letters.

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“You are hereby requested not to make any comment regarding the affairs of the provincial list committee hereforth,” Chauke wrote to the PLC leadership.

On Wednesday, ANC branches in support of the PLC protested outside the Mphekwa House, the provincial ANC headquarters in Mahikeng.

The protesters demanded the PLC investigation into inclusion of illegal councillors be implemented.

– ericn@citizen.co.za