Former ANC MP Boy Mamabolo
Former ANC MP Boy Mamabolo is expected to write to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) on Tuesday about his desire to change the name of his new party from “Mandela For President” to “Born To Win”.
Last week, the IEC said it had rejected Mamabolo’s application to register the party over concerns that its original name and its green-and-black branding could mislead voters into associating it with Nelson Mandela and the ANC.
Mamabolo initially appealed the decision but told the Mail & Guardian on Monday evening that he would write to the IEC on Tuesday to inform it that he would withdraw the appeal and change the name of his party.
“We are coming with a new name and we have attained more than 10 000 signatures and we are going to submit that name to the IEC. To get 10 000 signatures, whereas IEC wants 1 000, is not child’s play,” he said.
Mamabolo said most of the signatures were from ANC members and vowed that his new party would “eat” support from his former political home and the Economic Freedom Fighters.
“The party is called Born To Win because every South African was born to win, no matter the background, so this is us, we were all born to win. It is the opposite of what the ANC is doing to the elites; we are saying to everyone, come and join us because we were born to win,” he said.
Asked which prominent ANC members would join the party, he said most of them were still waiting for the results of the Limpopo provincial conference and would thereafter join him.
Two weeks ago, the M&G reported that Polokwane mayor John Mpe, Premier Phophi Ramathuba and Mopani district mayor Pule Shayi have emerged as the three favourites for the post of provincial chairperson as the ANC in Limpopo prepares for its elective conference next year.
Some branches in the province were reportedly calling for an early conference so the party could focus on next year’s elections.
“They are likely to have an early provincial conference. Once they get moored at the provincial conference, most of them are going to want to join us,” Mamabolo said.
On Monday, Mamabolo wrote to ANC secretary Fikile Mbalula and Limpopo provincial secretary Reuben Madadzhe informing them that he had decided to terminate his membership.
He said the ANC had “turned into a pig that eats its own children”, accusing the party of unlawfully removing him from parliament, saying he had to pay R300 000 in a bid to challenge his removal from the National Assembly.
After the decision to omit his name from the parliamentary list, Mamabolo accused Mpe and Madadzhe of manipulating the Limpopo parliamentary list, resulting in him not being sent to parliament.
He took the matter to court, alleging that he had been nominated by various branches in accordance with the ANC’s constitution and electoral rules, and had received sufficient nominations for his name to be included on the provincial-to-national list for Limpopo.
The ANC has accused Mamabolo of being selfish, showing a sense of entitlement to positions and putting his needs before those of the party and the electorate.
“When I tried to move on, you blocked our move to establish a political party called Mandela for President. Your objection was approved by the IEC because you clearly want me to be a failed politician,” Mamabolo wrote in his letter terminating his ANC membership.
“Therefore, I can not tolerate this and I want out. Like former president [Jacob] Zuma said when he resigned as the president, ‘we will meet somewhere’. ”
On Monday, Mamabolo told the M&G that the ANC had turned itself into an organisation of elites.
As the ANC undertakes its “renewal process”, the party now requires that all its public representatives — councillors, mayors, premiers and MPs — must have acquired at least a post-matric qualification, a stipulation Mamabolo sees as unfair.
“Our target is those whom they view as uneducated, the ground forces,not the elite, you can’t be going around meeting the elites, those are the voters,” he said, predicting that the Limpopo elective conference would be the beginning of the end of the ANC’s reign in the province.
“These are the same people you go to on a daily basis when you want votes, but when you are supposed to deploy them, you say they don’t qualify. You can’t be a voter and next thing you can’t be voted for.”