The ANC says it ‘rejects with the contempt it deserves’ AfriForum’s so-called dossier on ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula.

This follows AfriForum’s private prosecution unit, led by Adv Gerrie Nel, making a public appeal to the NPA to pursue allegations against Mbalula relating to a controversial Dubai trip in 2016 and 2017. AfriForum has claimed that the trip, made while Mbalula was sports minister at an estimated cost of R684 000, was paid for by Sedgars Sport and was an ‘undue benefit’.  

Caxton Network News reported on AfriForum’s appeal earlier today.

“This document is not a pursuit of justice, but a politically motivated smear campaign to isolate the secretary-general by a reactionary organisation that has long positioned itself as an enemy of transformation, non-racialism and the democratic will of the South African people,” said the ANC in a statement this afternoon.

AfriForum has said its report details ‘various allegations of fraud, money laundering and corruption’ against Mbalula. “The report, titled the Mbalula Dossier, also details how Mbalula is recklessly exposing South Africa to US punitive measures through, among other things, his defiant and insulting statements against Western countries; lobbying for the disregard of property rights through expropriation without compensation; and [an alleged] liaison with Hamas.”

The ANC responded, labelling AfriForum’s actions as ‘not only reckless, but an affront and direct attack on our sovereignty’.

Coincidence? ANC thinks not

The ANC statement added that it believes AfriForum’s timing is no coincidence and feels it is a result of the People’s March on Human Rights Day. The ANC and its partners had mobilised the ‘peaceful mass action to defend the sovereignty of our republic, protect our constitutional order and reaffirm the will of the people as the supreme authority in our land’.

“That mobilisation of the masses has shaken AfriForum and its backers and demonstrated that when the people rise to defend their rights and freedoms, counter-revolutionary forces always panic. This so-called dossier is a response to that panic, a clumsy attempt to shift the narrative and discredit the leadership of the ANC and its secretary-general,” it reads.

Nel said this morning that if the NPA chooses not to take action, he hopes a nolle prosequi certificate will be issued, confirming the state’s decision not to prosecute, and clearing the way for AfriForum to privately prosecute Mbalula.

The NPA is yet to comment on the matter.

Read the full statement:

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