African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has warned his comrades against playing the blame game over the party’s botched submission of councillor candidates to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).
Mbalula was speaking at a press briefing at Luthuli House on Tuesday when he acknowledged allegations of deliberate wrongdoing in the ANC’s handling of its candidate lists.
He said the party would not publicly name staff members involved in the submission process, arguing that they had been carrying out instructions and should not be turned into scapegoats for the wider failure.
“There have been suggestions from within the movement of deliberate wrongdoing. I say to every comrade, at every level: if you hold evidence, the movement’s structures are open to receive it, and I will act on it,” he said.
“What the ANC will not do is try its own comrades in the press, and it will not name the staff members who did their work on 28 August under instruction, who have no platform and no spokesperson, and who cannot answer for themselves. That is not accountability. It is the movement using its own employees as cover, and I will not permit it,” he said.
READ: Fikile Mbalula rejects claims ANC wants special treatment from IEC
Tensions between ANC Eastern Cape and Luthuli House
Mbalula’s comments come as tensions grow between the ANC’s national office and its Eastern Cape leadership over the handling of the party’s candidate lists.
Eastern Cape ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi wrote to Mbalula on August 31 demanding a detailed account of the candidates submitted to the IEC, including who submitted them and when. He also requested a consolidated breakdown of the ward and proportional representation candidates submitted across the province as questions mounted over the party’s failure to successfully capture candidates in several municipalities.
However, during the briefing Mbalula said the ANC’s candidate-selection process involved several structures and rejected the notion that one individual could be held responsible for the failure.
He said he had personally approved the lists for lodgement but confirmed that the Eastern Cape list was now subject to forensic scrutiny.
Mbalula said the province’s provincial executive committee would have to account for any changes made to the list and establish what was changed, who made the changes and why.
The ANC failed to successfully submit 181 councillor candidates in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State before the IEC deadline, forcing the party to seek relief to have the affected lists accepted. The ANC insists it was due to a technical glitch just before the IEC deadline of August 28, 17:00.
In the Eastern Cape, the crisis has affected municipalities including Sundays River Valley, Walter Sisulu, Ngquza Hill and Port St Johns.
Mabuyane’s suspicions of internal sabotage
Eastern Cape ANC chairperson Oscar Mabuyane has also raised the possibility of internal sabotage, saying the party must establish who was responsible if candidates were deliberately prevented from being registered.
READ: Setumo Stone | What it will take to convince the court in ANC councillor case
Speaking at the ANC’s Nyandeni sub-region manifesto launch on Sunday, Mabuyane said the party needed to establish what happened before accepting that technical problems were solely responsible for the missed submissions.
“If it is proven that candidates were not registered or submitted and as a result the ANC cannot contest elections [in some wards], that amounts to a betrayal of the ANC and the state,” he said.
Mabuyane said the ANC had intended to contest the affected wards and that anyone responsible for failing to complete the process would have to account for their actions.
“Whoever failed to press the button that would have secured the ANC’s councillors [must be found].”
The Eastern Cape chairperson also warned that the matter would not simply disappear once the immediate candidate-list crisis was resolved.
“We won’t let it off the hook; we will follow it through. This is not the first time something like this has happened,” Mabuyane said.
He singled out Ngquza Hill and Port St Johns, where the ANC currently governs outright, stressing the importance of ensuring that the party does not lose control of the municipalities because of failures in the candidate-submission process.
- ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula warned against blaming individual staff for the party's failed submission of councillor candidates to the IEC, stating staff acted under instructions.
- Mbalula confirmed he personally approved the candidate lists for submission, but the Eastern Cape list is now under forensic review to determine any changes made.
- The ANC failed to submit 181 councillor candidates in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Free State before the IEC deadline, citing a technical glitch as the cause.
- Eastern Cape ANC chairperson Oscar Mabuyane suggested the possibility of internal sabotage and emphasized the need to identify anyone responsible for deliberate delays.
- Mabuyane stated the ANC would hold accountable those responsible for the submission failures and stressed the importance of not losing control of municipalities like Ngquza Hill and Port St Johns.
African National
He said the party would not publicly name staff members involved in the submission process, arguing that they had been carrying out instructions and should not be turned into scapegoats for the wider failure.
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“What the ANC will not do is try its own comrades in the press, and it will not name the staff members who did their work on 28 August under instruction, who have no platform and no spokesperson, and who cannot answer for themselves.
READ: Fikile
Eastern Cape ANC provincial secretary Lulama
However, during the briefing
He said he had personally approved the lists for lodgement but confirmed that the Eastern Cape list was now subject to forensic scrutiny.
In the Eastern Cape, the crisis has affected municipalities including
Eastern Cape ANC chairperson Oscar Mabuyane has also raised the possibility of internal sabotage, saying the party must establish who was responsible if candidates were deliberately prevented from being registered.
READ: Setumo Stone | What it will take to convince the court in ANC councillor case
“If it is proven that candidates were not registered or submitted and as a result the ANC cannot contest elections [in some wards], that amounts to a betrayal of the ANC and the state,” he said.
Mabuyane said the ANC had intended to contest the affected wards and that anyone responsible for failing to complete the process would have to account for their actions.
“Whoever failed to press the button that would have secured the ANC’s councillors [must be found].”
“We won’t let it off the hook; we will follow it through.
He singled out
