The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC on Monday debated who should make the party’s national and provincial candidate lists for the May elections, with discussions taking place over whether those implicated by the State Capture Commission report should be included or not.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa has given all parties until Friday, March 8, to submit their lists of national and provincial candidates for the elections.
It has been reported that the ANC Integrity Commission chaired by Reverend Frank Chikane and the ANC Veterans’ League have recommended that those implicated at the Zondo Commission be excluded from election lists, while the ANC Women’s and Youth leagues said members not formally charged should be on the election lists.
ANC heavyweights Gwede Mantashe (Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy and ANC national chairperson), Zizi Kodwa (Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture), Khumbudzo Ntshaveni (Minister in the Presidency) and David Mahlobo (Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation) were named by the Zondo Commission as having a case to answer for instances of alleged corruption.
They have applied for a review of the commission’s findings.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula on Monday said that members of the NEC would deliberate on all the names on the lists before submitting them to the Electoral Commission on Friday.
“Today we will get the report from the list committee. Out of all those processes, it will look at screening, integrity issues, and the question of performance because in all of this we need continuity.
“We look at the performance of those who were allowed to serve and 50% of those must be retained to avoid starting from scratch,” he said.
On Sunday, Chief Justice Raymond Zondo’s office entered the discussions after City Press had reported that Mantashe had “successfully challenged” the State Capture report.
“The Chief Justice states that this statement by City Press is incorrect as Minister Mantashe did not successfully challenge the commission’s report.”
Justice Zondo said: “The statement in City Press that Minister Mantashe successfully challenged the State Capture Commission report is simply not true.
“City Press failed to do a basic investigation on this. The true position is that Minister Mantashe’s review application is still pending and has not yet been decided. In fact, no review application against the commission’s report has been decided.”
Former health minister Zweli Mkhize, who has been implicated in the Digital Vibes scandal, and former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede, who has been implicated in alleged fraud and corruption amounting to more than R300 million in relation to the DSW tender scandal, could also feature on the ANC list, depending on the outcome of the NEC meeting.
Both Mkhize and Gumede are seen as being crucial to the party’s campaign, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, where former president Jacob Zuma is actively campaigning for the newly-formed MK Party.
Mkhize resigned as minister of health when he was implicated in the irregular awarding of contracts to Digital Vibes, but he has gone to court to have the SIU (Special Investigating Unit) report reviewed and set aside.
Parliament’s multi-party Ethics Committee has confirmed that Mkhize did not benefit from the Digital Vibes contract.
A senior party member said the political realities of KZN would be a factor in the NEC decision on Mkhize as “he is clearly a key player in the province”.
“People are needed to counter the MK factor and these are the issues that the NEC will have to process.
“He could argue that he is not mentioned in the Zondo report and the SIU investigation has been going on for more than two years and they do not have a case.”
Gumede’s pathway to the provincial list is more problematic as she is in an ongoing trial with 17 others who face more than 2 000 charges, including conspiracy to commit corruption, corruption, fraud, money laundering, racketeering, contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act and contravention of the Municipal Systems Act.
Another source said that it would be more difficult to justify Gumede’s inclusion on the provincial list as she is facing court-led evidence.
“She featured at number five on the province’s list, but the step-aside guidelines prevent her from being nominated, unless the NEC decides otherwise,” they said.
Political analyst Professor Ntsikelelo Breakfast described the ANC as being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“People who have been cited in the Zondo Commission report are on the nomination list, but if the party leaves them off the list then they could end up not campaigning for the elections.
“This will affect the electoral performance but if you include them the message is that the ANC does not take the fight against fraud and corruption seriously.”
Breakfast said the ANC was practising double standards – in theory it had taken an anti-corruption stance but in practice it was doing the opposite.
The Mercury