Hope Ntanzi|Published
ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe has cautioned against blaming secretary-general Fikile Mbalula for the party’s failure to submit 181 candidates for the November 4 local government elections, saying the organisation should await the Constitutional Court’s judgment before addressing accountability.
Speaking to the SABC ahead of Thursday’s expected ruling on the ANC’s legal challenge to the exclusion of the candidates in six municipalities, Mantashe pushed back against criticism of Mbalula’s office and calls for those responsible for the failure to be held accountable.
“Many people who are baying for the blood of Mbalula have never been secretary-general; they don't know how complex that office is,” he said.
“I think it is unfair to put the cart before the horse. Now, you cut the cart, you put it before the horse, it's wrong.
''Let's wait for the outcome of the court, then deal with that issue as an issue on its own,'' Mantashe said.
Mantashe warns against finding someone to blame
Mantashe said the ANC should focus on resolving its organisational problems rather than identifying individuals to take responsibility before the court had ruled.
“When there are problems in your organisation, never look for a person to blame. Deal with the problem, resolve it without putting a face to the problem,” he said.
He warned that focusing on an individual could become an easy way to assign blame without addressing the underlying problem.
“Because if you put a face to the problem, you are going to have easy route of blaming so-and-so instead of so-and-so,” he said.
Mantashe acknowledged that administrative complexities had resulted in the ANC failing to submit ward councillor nominations in two municipalities and proportional representation (PR) councillor nominations in four others.
He said the matter should be addressed after the Constitutional Court delivered its judgment, rather than focusing on finding an individual to blame for the failure.
He did not identify any individual or structure as responsible for the failure, maintaining that the issue should be dealt with separately after the court’s decision.
ANC awaits ruling on excluded candidates
The Constitutional Court is due to rule on the ANC’s challenge after the Electoral Court dismissed its appeal against the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) decision to exclude the 181 candidates.
The dispute centres on the ANC’s failure to complete the final submission step on the IEC’s online candidate nomination system before the August 28 deadline.
Although the party had uploaded candidate information and paid the required deposits, it did not click the system’s “submit as final” button before the deadline.
The ANC argues that the final button was a system requirement not expressly provided for in electoral legislation and that its nominations should be considered valid.
The IEC maintains that the party had to complete the submission process before the deadline.
The affected municipalities are Port St Johns, Ngquza Hill, Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley in the Eastern Cape, uMshwathi in KwaZulu-Natal and Mangaung in the Free State. The ANC has no candidates in Port St Johns and Ngquza Hill.
The outcome could also have practical implications for the IEC, which has warned that a ruling in the ANC’s favour could require ballot papers to be reprinted.
The commission said on Wednesday that 66% of ballots had already been printed and that it had a limited window to produce replacements ahead of the November 4 elections.
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