The ANC integrity commission faces backlash over allegations of factional targeting in Limpopo. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The ANC’s electoral committee, headed by its former secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe, has come out in defence of Limpopo provincial secretary Reuben Madadzhe after allegations that he tampered with its elections list process.
The national executive committee (NEC) held a special meeting last week where it adopted a report on the state of its branches as well as an update on its branch general meetings to select those who will represent the party in the legislature and parliament.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian this week, electoral committee secretary Chief Livhuwani Matsila said their biggest concerns were KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Western Cape.
“If people were to be honest, everybody knows we have political challenges in those provinces and the NEC has said that there will be a programme of work and turnaround strategies designed to make sure that branches that are there, in the majority, must help in the campaigns and campaigns must be rooted in those branches,” he said.
The Limpopo provincial executive has been accused of tampering with the list process with allegations emerging that Madadzhe has been at the centre of the saga.
The Sunday World reported that Madadzhe favoured health MEC Phophi Ramathuba to become the next premier while others are hoping for deputy provincial chair Florence Radzilani to take over from Stan Mathabatha.
In a recent letter first published by the Daily Maverick, the provincial Veterans League secretary Sechaba Nkoana addressed Matsila on the matter.
Nkoana said the league was gravely concerned about the attack on the integrity of the candidate list processes by some “irresponsible” ANC leaders who were making use of the media to advance their factional interests.
Referencing a Sunday World article, Nkoana said that it was “patently clear” that the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) officials have “contaminated the 2024 candidate list processes and thereby denouncing and undermining the authority of the provincial list committee (PLC)”.
“They are in fact treating members of the PLC in a disrespectful manner and also desperately attempting to usurp the powers and authority of the PLC as if the PLC was one of their PEC sub-committees,” the letter reads.
But Matsila said the league did not need to complain on behalf of the provincial list committee.
“The PLC has not written any complaints of interference to the Electoral Committee. The Veterans League might be responding to media articles which are just sensational,” he said.
Matsila said the electoral committee had found that Limpopo was the best performing province during its list process.
He said the province had proved to be the most functional politically, with the highest number of branches — 80% — participating in the process.
“That achievement has been commended by the NEC and was regarded as exemplary. Allegations that there was manipulation of the nominations in the list processes is unfounded and they have no merit whatsoever.
“There is no single complainant that we can identify and, in terms of the dispute resolution process, it says that we can’t deal with informal disputes that are not raised by people whose locus standi is not confirmed as members in good standing.”
Matsila claimed that there was a “smear campaign” to try to spoil the process in Limpopo, and in the country generally, driven by people who are “mischievous” and want to taint the process for their own reasons.
“The process is clear — if aggrieved, you register the matter with the list committee and if [you are not satisfied], make an appeal to the electoral committee which makes a ruling. In this case, none of that has been done.”
In 2021, the provincial list committee in North West found itself at odds with the interim PEC, with top national officials forced to intervene.
Matsila said that the electoral committee was confident that it had run a tighter ship this time.
He said that there was “no way” for Madadzhe to manipulate processes as his role was solely to act as a liaison officer between the PEC and the PLC.
“The PEC can’t just produce raw lists and submit them because that is not their function and rules don’t allow for such occurrences.
“The PEC is made up of people who are inherently conflicted because, in the majority, they either want to go to the legislature or parliament. So, they can’t be the same people who decide on disputes and also order a forensic audit on the process.
“It’s not their purview; it’s outside their mandate completely. The only structure that can say there must be audits is the electoral committee.
“The electoral committee further appointed independent electoral agencies that captured the nominations. Then, after, they do an audit to ensure that only nominations from the branches which were verified and audited to sit are captured in the system. When you look at that, there is no problem at all in Limpopo.
“We don’t have problems at the moment. We have learnt to separate the two structures. All of that is clear at the moment. We are not concerned about these allegations in Limpopo because they don’t exist,” he said.
Meanwhile, the electoral committee said its report had found 79% of the party branches qualified to participate in the branch nominations process, which Matsila said showed absolute compliance at the structures.
“When you benchmark the number of branches that participated from the overall baseline, you come to a picture where just below 60% participation is recorded.
“The main reason that branches did not participate in time is because they were not in good standing which means they were not eligible to participate in the process,” Matsila said, adding that 1 000 branches had not participated in the process.
“But this is not a strange situation because, from time to time, branches are given space to improve membership and be in good standing so that they can participate in the process.
“It’s important in terms of our recommendations that those branches which are not in good standing are revived and are alive when faced with campaigns. Going forward, more of our branches should be in good standing so that the activities of the organisation are not compromised.
“Overall, there is an improvement because, in terms of our ratings, more provinces were in the red in 2021 and now there are some provinces which have moved into the green space in terms of performance and functionality overall.”
Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape were in the green line, recording over 70% branch general participation. Those with 50% to 69% branch general meetings, and marked amber, included Eastern Cape, Gauteng and North West, while the ANC’s biggest province, KwaZulu-Natal, raised concern, being in the red line of below 50% branch participation.
“In 2021, the entire ANC was regarded as red in terms of our ranking but now we have moved the organisation into amber.
“So, that analysis gives you the baseline in which we report our performance, so that come the next six months or a year, we can see if we are moving or not moving. So far, so good. We believe that there is movement and there is growing strength of the organisation and its branches,” he said.