Suspended secretary general Ace Magashule says he received and signed an NEC nomination letter from the ANC.
“ANC systems are rigged,” suspended secretary general Ace Magashule has alleged, saying he received and signed a national executive committee (NEC) nomination letter from the ruling party before being informed that he was not eligible.
Addressing Umkhonto weSizwe veteran supporters outside the Nasrec venue of the ANC’s 55th elective conference, Magashule said he had received an email from the ANC’s electoral committee headed by former acting president Kgalema Motlanthe, asking him to stand for nominations.
But after signing and accepting the nomination for the NEC, Magashule said, the electoral committee got back to him on Thursday to say he did not qualify to be in the leading structure due to the pending corruption charges against him.
“They say they have vetted their candidates, but I wake up to a letter asking me to accept or decline nominations. It shows that there is clearly no vetting process,” Magashule said. “If they told me to step aside, it clearly means the law doesn’t stand and that is why, if I am nominated from the ground, I will stand,” he said during an interview.
“I have records that this Wednesday I received a letter from the ANC which said I had been nominated to be in the NEC. And I asked, if I’m nominated, why I did not appear in the list of 200 [national executive committee members]. I asked if they have rigged the list and what is happening,” he said.
Magashule said President Cyril Ramaphosa should also step aside from his post after his predecessor Jacob Zuma initiated a private prosecution against him. He added that the Section 89 panel report which found that Ramaphosa had a legal case to answer over his handling of the theft at his Phala Phala game farm, was enough reason for the president to step aside.
Magashule was suspended from the governing party last year, in line with its step-aside rule, after he was criminally charged in connection with a multimillion-rand Free State asbestos tender.
Due to the step-aside rule, Magashule is not allowed to take part in ANC activities, including the national conference.
Nevertheless, on Friday Magashule said delegates attending the conference would decide his fate.
“I am [part of] the ANC, I was born in the ANC and no one will expel me from the ANC,” Magashule said.
He said he has been nominated for the NEC by some branches in his home province of the Free State, despite his suspension.
“The branches are the highest decision-making body [in] the conference and I will respect the branches and their voice. This conference must go on and it must be a peaceful conference, but no one must be stifled in raising issues and their views,” Magashule said on Friday.
“Delegates must be allowed to talk and the leadership of the ANC must never try to suppress the voices of branches, which are the basic unit of the ANC.”
Also present was Carl Neihaus, who was expelled from the ANC on the eve of the conference on the accusation of bringing the party into disrepute.
Niehaus said there were more than just double standards in the ANC and that the ruling party was confused about the application of laws and its own constitution.
“Ramaphosa should step down. He has been criminally charged in a private prosecution by [former] President Jacob Zuma. The step-aside rule should apply to [Ramaphosa], and if he emerges as ANC president once more, it will be illegal,” Niehaus said.