The simmering feud between ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and national executive committee (NEC) member Andile Lungisa has escalated, with both men trading verbal blows over Lungisa’s removal from the party’s candidate list.
After attempts to resolve the dispute politically failed and the matter reached oral argument in court, Lungisa went on the offensive in interviews, accusing Mbalula of unilaterally removing his name from the list.
Mbalula hit back on Friday, releasing a “fact sheet” setting out the ANC’s version before following it up with a statement yesterday.
He said Lungisa’s removal had nothing to do with political manoeuvring and resulted directly from his criminal record.
Lungisa yesterday told Sunday World that the issue before court was not whether he has a criminal record, after his conviction for hitting a fellow councillor with a jug while serving in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.
Lungisa said the dispute was about his vetting and the procedural fairness of removing his name from the list.
“The case in court is about one thing and one thing only; it is not about whether Andile Lungisa has a criminal record or not, it is about vetting and about whether I was vetted or not, which I insist I was.
“Trying to marry that with my criminal record status is opportunism. You cannot go to court claiming that someone slapped you and when you get there, you say you have a broken leg from the slap. That is a new case.
“This is what the ANC tried to do in court, introducing a new case because they know that they have no case about my removal from the list.”
Lungisa said the facts were straightforward and undisputed.
He said he was removed from the list on August 28, the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) deadline for parties to submit their candidates, after Mbalula wrote to him informing him of the decision.
But Lungisa insists the decision was unilateral: “The central issue is where does comrade Mbalula get the authority to remove a member at the point of registration to the IEC? I argue that he does not have such authority based on the ANC guidelines approved by the NEC in which I and comrade Mbalula are members.”
Lungisa said the guidelines provided for a multistage process involving branch nomination, regional and provincial processing, vetting, interviews, NEC consideration and final submission to the IEC.
He said his name passed through those processes and that anyone objecting to his nomination was required to lodge a dispute within 48 hours.
“Neither comrade Mbalula nor any ANC member launched a dispute against Andile Lungisa when he was nominated by a branch in Gqeberha,” he said.
The ANC said yesterday that Lungisa was removed under NEC guidelines and his criminal record disqualified him.
The party said the record was obtained late after Lungisa had apparently initially refused to submit his fingerprints to Postnet, appointed to conduct vetting. “The conviction and the sentence on which much of this tends to be a matter of public record were confirmed on appeal by the Supreme Court of Appeal,” the ANC said.
“It must be said plainly that membership of the African National Congress and service in any of its structures carries no guarantee of public office. Deployment is not an entitlement.”
Lungisa, however, said his criminal record arose from “ANC work”.
“I was not in a shebeen, that is why the ANC employed lawyers for me at the time to represent me because I was effectively the victim of the ANC,” he said.
- The simmering feud between ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and national executive committee (NEC) member Andile Lungisa has escalated, with both men trading verbal blows over Lungisa’s removal from the party’s candidate list.
- After attempts to resolve the dispute politically failed and the matter reached oral argument in court, Lungisa went on the offensive in interviews, accusing Mbalula of unilaterally removing his name from the list.
- Mbalula hit back on Friday, releasing a “fact sheet” setting out the ANC’s version before following it up with a statement yesterday.
- He said Lungisa’s removal had nothing to do with political manoeuvring and resulted directly from his criminal record.
- Lungisa yesterday told Sunday World that the issue before court was not whether he has a criminal record, after his conviction for hitting a fellow councillor with a jug while serving in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.
