ANC national heavyweights descended on Buffalo City Metro this weekend as campaigns for the local government elections intensify.
Both the party’s national chair, Gwede Mantashe, and second deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane were in town, conducting door-to-door visits and urging residents to vote for the party in the upcoming elections.
The ANC, which had failed to meet the deadline for the submission of candidate lists to the IEC for four municipalities in the province, has turned to the Electoral Court in a bid to have those names included in the list to compete for the November 4 municipal elections.
The affected Eastern Cape municipalities are Port St Johns, Ngquza Hill, Walter Sisulu and Sunday’s River Valley.
In two of the affected councils, neither the ward councillor candidates list nor the proportional representation (PR) lists had been submitted on time, while at Walter Sisulu and Sunday’s River Valley municipalities, the PR lists were not submitted on time.
This as some provincial lists are said to have been tampered with, and some names removed, without the approval of the provincial and national party leadership.
On Sunday, it was reported that a report by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has publicly blamed Eastern Cape provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukaitobi for the party’s election candidates debacle.
Ngcukayitobi could not be reached for comment on Sunday.
The party has appointed forensic investigators to probe the alleged list tampering.
However, speaking on the sidelines of the National Zionist Missionary Day at the City Hall in KuGompo City on Sunday afternoon, Mantashe contradicted Mbalula’s report, saying they were not yet blaming anyone for what had happened.
“When you deal with these kinds of problems, you don’t blame, because once you begin to blame, you will not get a solution.
“Where there is a human being, you always deal with something called human error all the time and you must always accept that it is the reality of life,” he said.
Asked if they believed Ngcukaitobi had sabotaged the processes, Mantashe said: “Why don’t we wait for the court case to be heard, and what we have committed ourselves to do is that we will abide by the outcome of the court.
“We are really very much perturbed about what appeared to have [happened], but we are going to wait for the process that the ANC has outlined.
“It will be unfair for me to say anything outside court when we have submitted something in court.”
He said they hoped the Electoral Court would see the importance of free and fair elections, so that people could participate in elections.
He believed the ANC had done a lot in following all the necessary processes.
“Whatever happened in the final hour, in terms of confirming our list, is something we will deal with after the outcome of the court,” he said.
Asked whether he believed there was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the party, ANC provincial chair Oscar Mabuyane said: “Understanding the difficulty, the work that is being done, it is quite a tedious exercise.
“I have been there [being the provincial secretary], I used to be very responsible for that, I cannot blame anyone at this stage.”
Mabuyane said they hoped the forensic investigation process instituted by the party would assist in getting all the answers they wanted.
“The province did its part. We concluded our lists.
“We went to the extended PEC meeting, we adopted our list and we sent people to make sure that our lists are registered.
“The provincial secretary was leading regional secretaries. They were all there,” he said.
He said the PEC would hold a meeting on Monday, “for the first time since we had this situation”.
“We are expecting the provincial list committee to report to the PEC, so that the PEC can speak from an informed position, so that we don’t go around speaking on the basis of gossip.”
Mabuyane said should the party not be able to contest in some areas, that would affect them negatively.
“The situation is not going to be good, that is why we are doing everything in our power to make sure that our people are able to exercise their right to vote and contest elections, as these affected councils are municipalities that the ANC is controlling beyond 70%,” he said.
On Saturday and Sunday, Mantashe and Mokonyane visited some wards and churches in KuGompo City and Qonce, while community meetings were also hosted.
DAILY DISPATCH