DAMNING EVIDENCE: Thamsanqa Hoyi, left, Lusindiso Kolose, centre, whose parents signed an attendance registers for a meeting held in Mdantsane even though they were in Middledrift, and Madoda Mhani with his wife – all of Mdantsane – have said they were not part of an ANC Ward 20 meeting held last month to elect branch leaders and ANC delegates to the Mangaung Conference. Graphic: TEGAN BEDSER
AT THE weekend a high-level team of investigators released a damning report confirming that unnamed ANC provincial leaders had manipulated candidates lists ahead of the 2010 local government elections.
Today we can expose another membership scam as the party’s processes of nominating leaders ahead of its national elective conference in Mangaung next month, enters its last week.
These are pictures of at least four members of an ANC branch in Ward 20, in Mdantsane.
Their names and signatures appear on the attendance register of a meeting held last month to elect their branch leaders.
The meeting resolved to support President Jacob Zuma for a second term and Kgalema Motlanthe to remain deputy president.
But these members claim they were never part of the meeting . Their stories, together with those of five others, appear in a video recorded by a member of the same branch using an iPad.
The recording was made by former Umkhonto weSizwe operative Mkhuseli Nombewu, who is preparing a dossier he plans to submit to both the regional and provincial leaders before the end of the week.
ANC branches have until November 30 to convene branch general meetings to nominate their preferred candidates. These meetings, have, however, been characterised by violence and accusations of fraud and manipulation in the province.
In the video, Lusindiso Kolose of NU6 said all he remembers signing was a document confirming he was still a member of the branch, while Sebenzile Nqinileyo of NU7 signed a document saying he was not part of the meeting .
The other video is that of Madoda Mhani who claimed he was visited at home and asked to sign.
They all claimed to have been approached by branch secretary Saki Waka.
Mhani’s wife can be heard on the video saying Waka visited her at work and asked her to sign a register for being absent from a branch meeting .
Kolose said he became suspicious when he noticed his name appearing with the names of his parents who were not even in Mdantsane at the time as they had been visiting relatives in Middledrift’s Qanda Village.
“He [Waka] made it clear this was merely to confirm we were ANC members and we had passed the audit.
“But I was wondering who could have signed on behalf of my mother and father because their names too had been signed even though they were in rural areas,” Kolose said.
Nqinileyo, 32, said he was also misled.
“I thought I was signing a confirmation that I was not part of the meeting , not the other way around,” Nqinileyo can be heard saying on the video.
All Waka was prepared to say yesterday, was that the meeting sat and met the basic party requirement to elect new leadership.
His branch has 321 members in good standing, and only needed 162 present to qualify to elect a delegate for the party’s conference next month.
Waka said between 175 and 180 members attended the meeting.
“Gidla [Nombewu’s nickname] was at the same meeting . He is one of the three people that wanted to disrupt our BAGM, but they were called to order,” said Waka.
Waka confirmed hearing about the footage, “but what is interesting is that some people refused to be part of this because they were part of the official meeting.
“What I can tell you is that I am a threat to some people here because they were not elected as councillors. The matter is so serious that someone has even threatened to kill me,” he said.
Nombewu said: “We are collecting this data to show our leadership how some branch leaders were doing things very foreign to the ANC.
“If you want to lead a legitimate structure, why do you have to lie to people and make them sign attendance registers for meetings they were never part of?
“We are going to file these video and affidavits as proof. If it needs be, we will table them at the ANC headquarters in Luthuli House. We can’t allow our people to be used like this,” Nombewu said.
BCM regional secretary Phumlani Mkolo said they had already received three disputes but none from Ward 20.
“People have the right to take the matter straight to the provincial headquarters. Perhaps they will go that route,” said Mkolo.
Nombewu said they had until tomorrow to file a complaint with the provincial headquarters.
“For now, we are still busy compiling more written and recorded confessions to show the seriousness of this manipulation. We will lodge a complaint thereafter,” Nombewu said.
ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane could not be reached for comment. — zineg@dispatch.co.za
