ANC nominates new candidates but old scandals loom large

The ANC yesterday kicked off a nomination process for its candidates to be deployed to provincial legislatures and parliament in preparation for the 2024 general election – with strict nomination criteria that includes no bribery to influence nominations and no candidates with a criminal record.

However, it was yet to address burning issues emanating from the 2021 municipal elections.

Grievances from communities whose candidates were removed from nomination lists and replaced fraudulently with politically connected individuals smuggled onto the list, were yet to be addressed.

An estimated 155 councillor candidates were allegedly “parachuted in” and the matter was investigated by the ANC electoral committee chaired by former president Kgalema Motlanthe, assisted by provincial list committees (PLCs).

The Motlanthe probe found damning evidence of widespread fraud involving top-level ANC politicians, councillors and mayors, who cheated the process by putting their friends and comrades in the nomination lists.

The report was never made public, despite instructions from the ANC headquarters at Luthuli House for it to be implemented.

After an outcry from affected communities, who threatened to boycott the ANC at the 2024 election, and successful court challenges by some of the marginalised councillors, the ANC undertook to rectify the matter and remove the “parachuted” councillors.

During a post-ANC national working committee media briefing addressed by the ANC national spokesperson, Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, at Luthuli House yesterday, the party did not mention the role of communities in the candidate nominations for provincial legislatures and parliament.

Instead, it highlighted that party branches would be the ones to select the candidates to be placed on the national and provincial candidate lists.

Secretary of the Motlanthe Committee Chief Livhuwani Matsila said individuals with criminal records and those on suspension, including those affected by the ANC’s step-aside rule, would not qualify for nomination.

However, those facing private prosecutions would not be excluded from the process.

All public representatives, including provincial executives, premiers and Cabinet ministers, qualify for nomination – depending on the outcome of their performance reviews, which could determine if they were eligible.

All nine ANC provinces must nominate candidates for the provincial premier position, with two of those being women.

The nomination process will start at the branch level with branch general meetings, where the process would be by show of hands by the attendees.

“We are going to a direction where the ANC must have more female premiers,” Matsila said.

The electoral committee would oversee the nomination process, assisted by the PLCs, which are undergoing training for the task.

Matsila said although a post-matric qualification was compulsory, those without qualifications but with work experience and a good track record in the ANC, will be included in the lists.

But everybody will have to complete four modules run by the party’s OR Tambo Political School.

He said negative campaigning was strictly prohibited and those who used money to bribe people to get nominated will be disciplined.

The nomination process ends in October, before the actual election campaign is launched.