Lobbyists for African National Congress president Thabo Mbeki (ANC) stand accused of using increasingly sleazy tactics in a frenzied drive to win over delegates in the run-up to the ANC conference in Polokwane, which starts in nine days.
Hitting on individual delegates perceived as hostile to their cause, the campaigners are allegedly using state resources to buy votes. The Mail & Guardian was told that money, business, development opportunities and government jobs are on offer.
Delegates are being wooed with red-carpet treatment, allegedly including accommodation at a top Cape Town hotel during the recent Western Cape provincial general council, which would have cost hundreds of thousands of rands.
Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad, an Mbeki loyalist, said those making the allegations should come to the ANC with evidence.
While the Zuma camp is out to consolidate the 800-vote lead he established at the provincial nominations conferences, Mbeki’s campaigners are seeking to reverse that setback.
Some of Mbeki’s backers say the backlog has been reduced to 500, possibly even 300 votes.
Mpumalanga
Three members of the Mpumalanga provincial executive committee (PEC), who asked not to be named, had paid a number of provincial delegates to support Mbeki.
Mbeki secured 37 votes to Zuma’s 287 at Mpumalanga’s nomination conference two weeks ago.
The pro-Zuma PEC members said the payments were made to influential branch members at a series of meetings in the province last week, organised by national leaders as part of Mbeki’s fight-back strategy.
They also claimed delegates were promised jobs and shares in companies with state contracts if Mbeki won the ANC presidency.
The PEC members said that at a meeting last Saturday one of the ministers, with a senior official from the Gert Sibanda municipality, had promised delegates government tenders if they delivered an Mbeki victory.
Western Cape
Western Cape ANC Youth League coordinator Songezo Mjongile compared the battle between Mbeki and Zuma lobbyists in his province with urban warfare. “It’s like Stalingrad. We’re fighting street by street and delegate by delegate,” he said.
The list of the 219 branch delegates and 22 provincial executive committee members going to Polokwane from the Western Cape is out and, said Mjongile, every delegate is being individually targeted. Such targeting will continue until the delegates have voted.
“Delegates are being phoned; they’re being invited to braais and parties. Ministers are going around to people’s houses. Things are heating up,” he said.
Mjongile, a Zuma supporter, said pre-conference lobbying is very different from what it used to be. “If you want to succeed, you need resources. Whether we like it or not, politics has changed and patronage has become part of the pre-conference landscape.”
The Mail & Guardian spoke to two Zuma lobbyists going to Polokwane who claimed James Ngculu, ANC Western Cape chairperson and a key Mbeki campaigner, has particularly deep pockets.
“We’ve heard of people offered money by Ngculu; we were even told of a delegate whose bond was paid by him.”
The source said the 110 delegates who supported Mbeki at the provincial general Council stayed in the Cape Sun hotel, while the other delegates were denied the privilege. “Who picked up that R700Â 000 hotel tab?” asked a pro-Zuma delegate.
Ngculu refused to comment on the claims. “My focus is on our President Thabo Mbeki, deputy president Nkosazana Zuma, Thoko Didiza, Terror Lekota and others, and not on who paid for what. I have no idea whether delegates stayed in the Cape Sun or who picked up the tab,” he said. Then he put down the phone.
Although the Western Cape is the only province where Mbeki bagged a two-thirds majority — 142 nominations to Zuma’s 87 — Mjongile believes the Mbeki lobbyists are “desperate”.
“They’re going all out to make people fear Zuma and sketching scenarios of how he’ll disrupt government.
“The Mbeki camp harbours the dangerous notion that he [Mbeki] is our anointed leader. For 30 years we’ve had him in a leadership position — his time is up,” Mjongile said.
A senior Mbeki lobbyist said the president had won an additional 40 votes since last week. “Zuma’s foothold here is getting smaller and this is very worrying for the Skwatsha caucus [a reference to the pro-Zuma Western Cape secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha] — their jobs are on the line,” he said.
He denied Ngculu had put money into the Mbeki campaign. “It’s easy to make those allegations because you can’t prove them.”
Eastern Cape
In the Eastern Cape several ANC members said they and other delegates had been offered jobs, business opportunities and “bags of money”. A pro-Mbeki source admitted that “all stops are being pulled out. This is politics … people have to use all the incentives they can find.”
ANC Youth League regional secretary Andile Lungisa said promises of permanent government positions were being offered.
Lungisa said the League complained to the ANC’s Eastern Cape leadership that 14 positions for community development workers were allocated to people to secure their votes for Mbeki.
“We get reports of all sorts of provincial jobs being promised.”
He said vote-buying was also taking place in the province’s Chris Hani region, which includes Queenstown. “Sometimes people are offered more than R2 500. Our advice is: take it, buy youself lunch in Limpopo and vote as you want to.”
A delegate from the OR Tambo region said he was phoned by an official from the provincial government in Bisho and offered a lucrative business opportunity that would benefit him and his rural community.
“The official said they had identified me to lead a local development project in my area, which would include a shopping mall and a garage. They even said they want to convert an old army base close by into a tourist attraction and they want me to head that.
“But then they said they saw me in a disappointing T-shirt. If I change my vote, I can have the job,” the delegate said.
Another delegate said he was offered a chief director’s position in the province if he promised to help sway voting in his region.
Cosatu accused some ANC leaders in North West of offering to buy cars and pay ANC delegates up to R10 000 for their votes.
Comeback kid
Several factors suggest Mbeki could stage a comeback in Polokwane next week. His supporters said these included:
Discrepancies in the voting results from the provincial conferences, apparently uncovered by the ANC’s electoral commission;
Some provincial delegates who voted were not entitled to do so because their branches had not met the required conditions;
Not all delegates who cast votes at the provincial conferences will be full delegates at Polokwane;
Mbeki’s last-minute campaign, designed to show his “softer” side, including an hour-long interview on 15 SABC radio channels on Wednesday night; and
The conference might opt for gender parity in all elected structures, meaning that the “top six” and NEC lists will be altered. Mbeki’s campaign has targeted women.