Former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni, who is facing charges of corruption and fraud in court, is being backed by the African National Congress Youth League, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape for re-election to the party’s national executive committee (NEC).
The ANC is to elect its new NEC in Stellenbosch next month.
Yengeni’s corruption charges are linked to the 47% discount he received on a luxury Mercedes-Benz 4×4 from an arms company linked to the controversial R50-billion arms deal.
The ANC in at least three out of the four provinces that have announced their nominations for the party’s NEC have voted in favour of communists and trade unionists.
Meanwhile, the youth league has excluded South African Communist Party deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin and party treasurer Phillip Dexter from its list of nominations. Youth league secretary Fikile Mbalula said the organisation had taken members’ track records, among other criteria, under consideration for nomination.
Limpopo and Mpumalanga have both pushed Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha’s name, while the Northern Cape has proposed a host of communists and trade unionists, including National Union of Mineworkers general secretary Gwede Mantashe.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi this week urged trade unionists to flood the ANC. He also announced that Cosatu members are lobbying hard to ensure the election of trade unionists to the NEC.
According to a list released by the ANC in the Northern Cape, SACP deputy chairperson Dipuo Mvelase and SACP central committee members Yunus Carrim, Ncumisa Kondlo and Jerry Thibedi are among the prominent communists nominated by the province. The SACP chairpersons in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo — Willies Mchunu and Sello Moloto — and former trade unionist Enoch Godangwana, also feature on the Northern Cape list. Godangwana, who is ANC deputy chairperson in the Eastern Cape, has also been nominated by Mpumalanga
The Mail & Guardian had named most of these communists and trade unionists last month as some of the ANC members likely to be pushed in as the left and the right battle for the ANC’s soul ahead of the party’s national conference in Stellenbosch.
An ANC member said: ”The branches seems to have voted for the unity of the alliance.”
Former Mpumalanga premier Mathews Phosa also features on the Limpopo and Northern Cape lists.