ANC electoral committee chair Kgalema Mothlante. Photo: Jelesai Njikizana/AFP
ANC electoral committee chair Kgalema Motlanthe has admitted that some omissions were made from the initial national and provincial lists that were submitted to the Electoral Commission of South Africa last month.
Motlanthe made the admission to journalists while on the party’s campaign trail in Diepkloof, Soweto, on Friday.
The Mail & Guardian reported this week that ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula was under fire after a report by Motlanthe found that the party’s provincial and national parliamentary lists were manipulated under his watch.
Sources with intimate knowledge of the report, which was presented to the ANC’s top officials in March, told the publication that Motlanthe found that the lists from Gauteng, North West, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal had been altered at the secretary general’s office.
The ANC’s electoral committee said the altered lists were sent to the IEC under the guise of urgency, according to the sources.
Responding to these allegations, Motlanthe said all he knew was that while uploading the lists, some omissions were made at the last minute and this matter was raised with the electoral committee.
“As the electoral committee, we worked out some corrective measures which we shared with the leadership of the ANC, the officials to be specific. This is a matter that is being attended to as far as I know,” he said.
In 2017, the former president told the BBC that the party had to “hit rock bottom” and lose the national elections “for the penny to drop” in the minds of ANC members. He said “it would be good for the ANC itself if it was voted out, because…those elements who are in it for the largess will quit, will desert it, and only then the possibility would arise to salvage whatever is left of it”.
On Friday Motlanthe told journalists that he would still be voting for the governing party and that his 2017 comments “wasn’t like a wish or a prediction, but rather a plea to the leadership of the ANC to open up their ears and hear the cries of the ordinary people”.
“In 2017, I did make the point that perhaps the ANC has lost the ability to hear the cries and criticism of its support base and that perhaps that message would be heard loud and clear if the ANC were to lose elections,” he conceded.
Motlanthe also weighed in on another story published by M&G this week that Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Zizi Kodwa faces corruption and money-laundering charges for a more than R1.6 million alleged bribe he received, part of which he used to buy a Jeep vehicle.
The M&G reported that sources close to the National Prosecuting Authority said the charge sheet detailing Kodwa’s alleged crimes was being “fine-tuned” before NPA head Shamila Batohi authorises the prosecution of the minister.
The insiders added that the case against Kodwa was strong because emails showed his involvement in influencing the awarding of lucrative contracts to information technology company EOH Holdings while he was an ANC national executive committee member and the party’s spokesperson.
Motlanthe said there were clear rules and guidelines on what must happen to those who are formally charged, including the ANC’s step aside rule.
“If the NPA is having a case against Minister Zizi Kodwa, we will wait and see, because we have no way of being privy to that information and what they do. Our role and concern as an organisation (is) to always make sure there is fairness,” he said.