ANC election-list fight turns ugly as Mbalula faces court threat

It’s ANC versus ANC as Eastern Cape secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi said he would not hesitate to take secretary-general Fikile Mbalula to court over claims he was responsible for the party’s election-list scandal.

Ngcukayitobi’s lawyers said Mbalula’s claims were defamatory and that he had personally ordered a Nelson Mandela Bay candidate to be removed from the party’s list.

Mbalula has until noon on Tuesday to withdraw the claims, or Ngcukayitobi, through his lawyers, said he would take the defamation fight to court.

Mbalula was approached for comment, and his response will be added if and when it is received.

The letter, dated Thursday and sent by Mabuza Attorneys to Mbalula at Luthuli House, followed a report he compiled on the ANC’s candidate-list failures, which was published on the front page of Sunday Times at the weekend.

The newspaper reported that Mbalula’s report said Ngcukayitobi had sent the Eastern Cape’s final candidate list to the party’s operations centre just 29 minutes before the deadline, identifying this as the main reason four key municipalities in the province were affected.

The report also said Mbalula suspected Ngcukayitobi of changing the list without authorisation, removing some names and adding others that had not been approved by the national executive committee.

The ANC missed the Electoral Commission of SA's 5pm deadline on August 28 to register candidates in six municipalities, four of them in the Eastern Cape.

The party then went to the Electoral Court , arguing that a technical fault on the commission's online system had stopped its lists for the six municipalities from going through.

The commission, however, said the ANC had simply not finished the final submission step.

The court on Wednesday dismissed the ANC's case, finding the party never pressed the "submit as final" button when it loaded its lists, and the commission's audit trail showed no system fault.

ANC spokeswoman Mahlengi Bhengu said on Wednesday the party would appeal.

The feud between the two men predates the court ruling, with Ngcukayitobi writing to Mbalula on August 31 to demand a detailed account of the candidates the ANC had submitted to the commission, and giving his office until 1pm on September 1 to reply.

In Thursday's letter, Ngcukayitobi's lawyers said Mbalula had caused false statements to be published that damaged their client's integrity, standing and reputation.