Johannesburg - As more than 4 000 delegates prepare to vote for the top seven officials at the 55th ANC elective conference, allegations of tampering with the voters’ roll by delegates said to be backing President Cyril Ramaphosa have surfaced.
A highly placed source and delegate on the inside revealed the information to Independent Media said they had caught “Ramaphosa’s supporters” tempering with the voters’ roll with the intention to remove delegates believed to supporters of former health minister Zweli Mkhize. A source who asked not to be named said the culprits were found out by a KwaZulu-Natal provincial leader who refused to give his name.
He said the leader confronted the culprits about what they were doing before he took the matter to a conference steering committee which then called all provincial secretaries to discuss the matter.
“As I'm talking to you provincial secretaries are going through the voters’ roll to see whether there was any tempering. These people want to steal the conference at all cost. They tried to bribe delegates by offering them R20 000 to vote for Ramaphosa now they are trying to remove us from the voters’ roll,” said a delegate.
Approached for comment, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal leadership and Zweli Mkhize’s campaign managers refused to be drawn. Attempts to get comment from Ramaphosa’s lobbyists were also not successful.
Electoral Committee secretary Chief Matsila had not yet responded to questions at the time of publishing.
After nominations were concluded in the early hours of Sunday voting for the officials was expected to start at 9am but was delayed.
In a regular update the party spokesperson Pule Mabe said the delay was caused by the reports that had to be tabled, saying that after reports and messages of support by alliance partners, delegates will move to voting booths to cast their votes. He assured the public that the party would push for the results to be announced today.
Independent Media had reported on Friday that a group of people led by two cabinet members known to be aligned to Ramaphosa camp had allegedly offered delegates R20 000 to vote for Ramaphosa. The delegate from OR Tambo in the Eastern Cape said the two ministers had approached him and other delegates at the registration centre with an offer but he turned it down.
Daily News