The ANC in Limpopo has been riddled with allegations that it’s unduly inflating membership ahead of the national elective conference.
According to three internal sources, who requested anonymity, the province wants to garner more delegates to vote against President Jacob Zuma in Mangaung.
The Star has seen a blank ANC membership form, which has the authentic stamp of the FNB’s Savannah branch in Polokwane.
But the applicant’s details, such as names, identity number and gender, were omitted from the membership form.
Contrary to the party and the bank’s standard operating procedures, the only information on the form was about the R12 annual membership fee and the date on which the fee was paid into the ANC bank account. It was deposited on May 31 this year, the cut-off date for new members eligible to be audited for the national conference.
The unsigned deposit slip is also attached to the membership form, but has neither the depositor’s names nor contacts details. FNB officials, speaking anonymously, said it was against procedure to accept blank forms.
Branch manager Regita Lawrence could not be reached for comment, but The Star has seen a letter she allegedly wrote after an ANC member had inquired about the deposits.
“To whom it may concern… we cannot assist this request as these deposits are made in bulk and we would need the whole amount deposited for that day for the specific deposit that included his reference number,” Lawrence purportedly said.
Limpopo, under ANC chairman Cassel Mathale, a friend of axed ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, opposes a second term for Zuma.
The province resolved at its past congress in December that all branches in the province should have more than 500 members.
If it achieves this, Limpopo is likely to send to the conference more or less the same number of delegates as larger provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal, which backs Zuma, will be sending.
This has raised concerns among supporters of Zuma’s unofficial campaign.
“Their strategy is to recruit new members, even Cope members, so that they can have more delegates when branches are audited,” said the source.
Another source said there were plans to misplace branch files from the regional offices, and relaunch the branch with new ghost members.
At the weekend, regional leaders of the Peter Mokaba region were in the Blouberg sub-region, allegedly to accept new members.
This was done in the absence of branch leaders, even though rule 4 of the ANC constitution states that the responsibility to accept new members lay with the branches.
The Blouberg sub-region is known to be backing Zuma’s re-election bid, against the wishes of the region and the province’s leadership.
ANC regional chairman Matome Mafikeng acknowledged he was in Blouberg, but denied accepting new members. “We were there to recruit new members. The branch executive committee must still accept them,” said Mafikeng.
He accused local branch leaders of “gate-keeping” ANC membership.
“The ANC in that area is not growing, because some people are being refused membership in Blouberg,” said Mafikeng.
Both he and ANC provincial spokesman Makonde Mathivha denied there were plans to inflate membership numbers.
ANC national spokesman Keith Khoza said on Tuesday a blank membership form was invalid, even if it had a bank stamp.
“The membership form has to have the applicant’s name, the ID number and all the relevant information,” he said.