The court battle between ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and the party's national executive committee member, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has raised questions about the politics of money and vote-buying in the ANC for leadership positions.
Dlamini-Zuma recently filed court papers opposing Mbalula's demand that she apologise for saying he and party president Cyril Ramaphosa used money to buy delegates at the 2022 national conference.
This week, at a media briefing, Mbalula said he wanted Dlamini-Zuma to retract her claim that he was seen dishing out money at the 2022 conference, but admitted that money was being used to pay delegates to vote a certain way.
He said he agreed that money was offered to influence conferences, warning that if the party was not careful, it would end up being led by people who had money. This, he said, would make it difficult for ordinary members to emerge as leaders because they did not have the financial means.
"There is a problem in the organisation. There is money that is being used and all of that; we all know that. I didn't dish [out] money. I'm clear. I want the person who says they saw me giving [out] money, because I did not have any.
"Posts in the ANC are bought; we cannot allow that. Here in our organisation, if we don't address this issue, it means the person with the biggest purse will lead. I'm opposed to that because that is changing the ANC.
"We agree on these issues. The only disagreement is that I was standing at a clinic door and giving out money."
Mbalula added that he was challenging Dlamini-Zuma's allegations because, as the enforcer of the ANC's laws, it would be difficult for him to deal with matters of integrity in the party while such allegations were hanging over him.
With others lobbying Patrice Motsepe to run for the presidency, some in the ANC feel that, despite not being grounded in the party's structures, he might emerge as their president because of his wealth.
On Wednesday, on the sidelines of a door-to-door campaign, President Cyril Ramaphosa described allegations of vote-buying at party conferences as rumours and said the practice was unacceptable.
"Those are rumours that we hear but, obviously, as the ANC, we are completely against the buying of votes.
"Our delegates are supposed to go to conferences and vote for the candidates that they believe will advance the interests of the ANC and the interests of our people."
Ramaphosa himself was previously accused of using R1 billion to pay delegates during his 2017 presidential campaign to ensure that he ascended to power.
In 2019, bank statements lodged by the Public Protector in the Pretoria High Court relating to donations made to Ramaphosa's CR17 campaign were sealed from public access after a request from the president.
In December last year, the Johannesburg regional conference was marred by allegations of bribery and vote-buying by those seeking the mandate to lead the organisation for the next three years.
According to senior party members, delegates were given brown envelopes containing power banks, an ANC hat and R3,000 in cash, while some were allegedly paid R10,000 each, with the promise of even more benefits after the conference. These allegedly included jobs for them and their family members in the municipality if their slate won.
Then regional chair Dada Morero acknowledged what he called the "devil of money and money politics" in the ANC, which persisted even though the organisation had tried to condemn the practice.
"For an organisation that is stable, the politics of money is indeed destroying the ANC from a growth point of view. Money politics affects us because we end up electing people who are not fit for the task," he said.
A source told the Mail & Guardian that vote-buying required a lot of money, which was usually paid in cash.
"You must have your own people who you are 100% sure will support you based on principle. Then you go to the ones that don't support you and approach a number of them, give them money and ask them to vote for you.
"The thing is, even the ones you think will vote for you can also be approached. So, out of 100 that you think will vote for you based on principle, you must at least expect that 10 might vote otherwise."
The source said those who ended up taking the money were then required to join the caucus meetings of their benefactors.
"Once you see them in the same caucus, then you must know they have changed their stance."
Asked whether it was not risky to give people money and hope that they would vote in your favour, the source said people were willing to risk it all.
"You can buy people and hope that they vote for you, but you are not guaranteed that they will do so when they get to the ballot. But people are willing to risk it."
Another source said Mbalula won the secretary general position based on a generational mission, saying what also helped him was that he was on President Cyril Ramaphosa's slate.
"Mbalula called people three weeks before the conference and said that he was running. You must remember that we were supporting Mdumiseni [Ntuli] but we had to move because Mbalula is part of our generation.
"In that conference, 70% of the delegates were of our generation; so most of us voted because of a generational ideology."
The source said that if the contest was not based on money, Mbalula was likely to emerge as president at the 2027 ANC elective conference because his generation would be the one with more delegates.
The source further explained how current deputy president Paul Mashatile managed to cling to victory at the 2022 conference.
"We were not supporting Paul; we wanted Oscar Mabuyane. We tried to convince Ronald Lamola to drop his campaign, but he refused. So the votes which went to Lamola were the difference between Paul and Mabuyane."
Mashatile benefited; but had Lamola not stood, the story would have turned out totally different.