The election of City of Johannesburg MMC for Finance Loyiso Masuku as ANC Johannesburg regional chairperson has taken a new turn, amid claims that candidates who failed to meet nomination thresholds were irregularly included on the ballot.
The allegations, contained in a report among the complaints that landed in Luthuli House, centre on the disputed ANC Johannesburg regional conference, where new concerns have been raised about the nomination and voting process for the region’s top five positions, including deputy secretary and additional members of the regional executive committee.
At the heart of the controversy is the role played by Elections Management Consultancy Agency of Africa (EMCA), which managed the elections at the conference held in Woodmead. Its CEO, Noluthando “Lulu” White, whose company records show that she resigned as a director of the agency on September 27, 2021, is said to have signed a document listing the ANC Johannesburg candidates who contested the top five positions.
In the undated document seen by Sunday World, Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero is reflected as having received 64 branch nominations, while Masuku received 56, meaning both met the minimum threshold to contest for the regional chairperson position.
However, the same document shows that Nomoya Mnisi, the MMC for Economic Development who contested for the position of deputy secretary, received 58 nominations, while Lerato K Bob, who was ultimately elected deputy secretary, is listed as having received only 23 nominations.
According to ANC rules, candidates must secure nominations from at least 25 branches (20% of branches in good standing) to qualify for inclusion on the ballot.
An ANC branch leader told Sunday World that candidates who failed to meet this threshold were nonetheless allegedly included.
“As the document states, certain candidates were pushed and included in the list, as is the case with Lerato K Bob and Eunice Mgcina,” the branch leader said.
“Based on delegated authority from branches, you need to be nominated by more than 25 branches to be in the ballot. There are people who were on the ballot paper but did not get the threshold, but due to shenanigans, they were pushed to be on the ballot paper.”
When asked to account for the alleged discrepancies contained in the EMCA document signed by White, ANC Gauteng convenor Hope Papo reacted angrily, saying responsibility lay with regional structures.
“Any query or allegation related to the regional conference should be organisationally investigated by the regional electoral committee so that we do not deal with untested and unverified allegations,” Papo said.
“Expecting me or anyone to respond to allegations without a formal investigation and report will be presumptuous, wrong and unconstitutional.”
ANC Johannesburg regional secretary Sasabona Manganye said the document was being deliberately circulated to inflame tensions.
“They just want to throw it around, hoping that it will further deepen the crisis,” Manganye said.
“I saw the document on social media, as I have never received it. I only saw it last night (Friday). Whatever they sent to you is not what was used as a final document to confirm final nominations.”
Asked whether the document was fake, Manganye said he could not make that determination but insisted it was incorrect. “I don’t know if it’s fake or not, but to determine if something is fake, it should be investigated,” he said.
“The problem is that one says something is fake, but what I know is that it’s not correct; whether it’s fake or not is a different story. At the time of the document’s compilation, I wouldn’t know what the circumstances were.”
The conference received a report on those who qualified to contest, the Electoral Commission went further to allow those who didn’t qualify to be nominated from the conference plenary.
“Those who believe they might not have been fairly treated, had an opportunity to raise their concerns or disputes to the Electoral Commission. You can’t raise disputes about nominations after conference, what do you hope to achieve if you raise such weeks after conference.” he said.
While the controversy surrounding the conference rages on, an employee of EMCA, Kgasane Sekgalo, who worked at the conference as a presiding officer, died mysteriously last week.
His death happened before the police and ANC officials from Luthuli House raided White’s premises last Sunday, where they claimed to have found ballot papers for the Johannesburg ANC region conference stashed in a black refuse bag hidden in the garden.
Efforts to get hold of White were unsuccessful.
