ANC Eastern Cape Provincial Secretary, Lulama Ngcukayitobi, has raised the alarm with national party officials led by President Cyril Ramphosa over what he claims are irregularities and conference processes manipulation. He alleges that ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula has allowed these “shenanigans” to fester.
This comes just days before the watershed provincial conference scheduled for 27 to 29 March at the notorious East London ICC. That’s where ANC members from the province once engaged in what Ramaphosa dubbed a “festival of chairs” when delegates used steel chairs to assault each other over factional slates.
‘Systemic manipulation, selective ethics, factional engineering’
Ngcukayitobi’s formal warning to the Top Seven lays bare systemic manipulation, selective ethics and factional engineering, placing the ANC’s 2026 electoral prospects and 2027 leadership battle on a collision course. Ngukayitobi’s jaw-dropping letter, which Sunday World has seen, has sent shockwaves through ANC structures around the country. It is not a routine administrative complaint, but a devastating internal indictment.
The letter establishes that this is not his first attempt to escalate issues, with previous correspondence sent in August 2025. Mbalula apparently treated the matter carelessly and trivialised it. This claim immediately elevates the current intervention into a formal charge of institutional neglect.
‘Not factional rhetoric, but a constitutional warning’
Acting in terms of constitutional authority, Ngcukayitobi invokes the powers of his office and frames the matter within the ANC’s renewal agenda, making it clear that this is not factional rhetoric, but a constitutional warning.
“I do so guided by the powers vested in my office as the Provincial Secretary, in particular clause 19.11 ‘The Provincial Officials shall, with due allowance for differences of scale and level of work, perform the same functions as their National counterparts, provided that there is no equivalent or counterpart for the position of National Chairperson’ read together with clause 16.6, ‘The Secretary General shall be
the Chief Administrative Officer of the ANC’,” writes Ngcukayitobi.
“These Conferences are held under very difficult conditions wherein the ANC is facing an existential crisis as evidenced by the 2024 electoral support, henceforth committed itself for a renewal which is well articulated in various documents including highlights on guidelines on conference guidelines. Further this Conference is convened just few months before Local Government Elections – another test case for the strength and resilience of the ANC.”
Series of explosive allegations
The letter proceeds to outline a series of explosive allegations, beginning with the manipulation of the QR code system used to convene Branch General Meetings ahead of the provincial conference. Ngcukayitobi states that QR codes, an instrument meant to safeguard credibility and prevent fraud, have been issued unlawfully and inconsistently, in direct violation of NEC-adopted guidelines. It records that QR codes were allegedly sent to individuals with no formal role in convening meetings, bypassing established structures, and opening the door to what he describes as large-scale manipulation. Even more alarming is the claim that some branches were told they could only receive QR codes if they first indicated preferred delegates and leadership outcomes.
Ngcukayitobi fell short of saying this is the pre-determination of democratic outcomes.
“Article E of the ANC NEC adopted guidelines on conference prescribe the process to be followed for issuing of QR Codes by the Head Office. Guidelines direct BECs (branch executive committees) to appoint scanners for BGMs whose details must be sent to Head Office for issuing of QR Codes. It further prohibits Branch Secretary from being appointed as scanners, the scanning details are sent directly to the scanning agent not anyone else,” Ngcukayitobi’s letter states.
Irregular and inconsistent issuing of QR Codes
“I, so are other PEC members, have received complaints from BECs, PEC members about the IRREGULAR and INCONSISTENT issuing of QR Codes by the Head Office. These incidents spread across the Eastern Cape Regions (Alfred Nzo, Dr Rubusana, Sara Baartman & OR Tambo Regions) to name a few, I am not ruling out possibility of all Regions. This is very inconsistent with the guidelines as outlined earlier, worse off that the Province earlier on when the new system was testing, requested that the Provincial Office must be delegated powers to issue QR
Codes under the supervision of the HQ, which was vehemently denied.”
The letter goes further, documenting that numerous branches, particularly in the OR Tambo Region, did not receive QR codes at all, forcing legitimate meetings to be cancelled.
At the same time, other branches reportedly received QR codes without following the required procedural steps. This contradiction is not minor, Ngcukayitobi charges, as it points to a system that is not merely inefficient, but selectively applied, adding that selective application of process is indistinguishable from manipulation.
‘ANC membership system is unreliable, vulnerable and open to abuse’
The most explosive part of the letter describes the membership system as unreliable, vulnerable and open to abuse.
Ngcukayitobi claims that membership data can be altered with members added, removed or edited, without traceability or oversight. It warns of the creation of ghost members and the exclusion of legitimate members in good standing. He argues that this is the most devastating structural vulnerability that strikes at the very core of the ANC’s internal democracy, and he places this at Mbalula’s doorstep as the office that oversees the membership system.
“On 12 August 2025, l penned a letter to the Secretary General (SG) – Comrade Fikile Mbalula on observations of weaknesses of the membership system, a matter stemming from a comprehensive appeals from some branches in Dr WB Rubusana Region particularly an appeal from comrades from Ward 47. These observations were about how easy it is to manipulate the system meaning to once you have downloaded the list you can easily include, remove edit the membership data without seeking permission from Luthuli House.
‘Matter was treated as trivial’
“In light of these complaints, I then requested the Secretary General’s Office to investigate all these irregularities, but it is unfortunate that within a week a meeting between the Provincial Officials and SG and organising was called and the matter was treated as TRIVIAL, with no follow up nor investigation made on a matter officially raised by a seating Provincial Secretary.”
‘ANC Step Aside policy is like ‘Animal Farm”
Ngcukayitobi goes on to poke holes in the application of the contentious ANC Step Aside policy, of which the implementation in the Eastern Cape he likens to animal farm. The letter details the case of Chris Hani Regional Chairperson, Lusanda Sizani and the inconsistent application of a policy that was meant to anchor the ANC’s renewal.
“The Provincial Integrity Commission (PIC) found that Cde Lusanda Sizani must be put on Step-Aside pending the finalisation of his court case. Post the outcomes of the PIC – I wrote to Comrade Sizani in line with standard practice in the EC that the recommendations of the PIC are not subject to review by the PEC but forthwith implemented after the PIC decision and reported to the PEC later for noting.”
Ngcukayitobi struggles to meet with national officials
Ngcukayitobi continues to request a meeting with national officials.
“I must hasten to indicate that the NEC deployees intervened that the matter must be submitted to the PEC meeting for discussions after the presentation by the PIC. This didn’t take into account, previous practices in the EC and further amplified by the outcomes of the National General Council Resolutions on ‘Strengthening Ethical Conduct through Step-Aside Provisions’. I advised the PEC against the decision, given the seriousness of the case, how in the previous the PEC handled similar cases but nonetheless, the Chairperson summed up contrary to the advice.”
What emerges from Ngcukayitobi’s letter is not a series of isolated administrative lapses, but a coherent pattern in which ANC processes are applied selectively, systems are vulnerable to manipulation, and interventions occur in ways that favour certain outcomes.
Ngcukayitobi warns that the ANC may face a state of paralysis
Similar disputes are surfacing across the country, including in Vhembe and Peter Mokaba in Limpopo, Alfred Nzo, Joe Gqabi and WB Rubusana in the Eastern Cape, and Ekurhuleni in Gauteng. The letter fell short of accusing the Secretary General of manipulating the ANC processes for his own self-serving ends.
Ngcukayitobi warns that if nothing is done by Ramaphosa and his ANC national top brass, the former liberation movement faces a state of paralysis. “This intervention is therefore sought in order to secure a smooth, transparent, credible and democratic organisational processes that are free from tendencies of manipulation, gate keeping, that are fair and inclusive and beyond reproach.
“The ANC NEC must guard the Eastern Cape jealously as a critical base for renewal and stability. Allowing systemic dysfunction and constitutional overreach to persist would constitute a strategic error of National consequence.”
By Mawande AmaShabalala
