ANC showdown looms over rigged member forms

Disgruntled ANC members in Buffalo City Metro have vowed the region will not sit for its elective conference until their demands are met.

The members issued the warning at a march to the Mdantsane branch of First National Bank (FNB) following a Daily Dispatch exposé which revealed how ANC membership forms were rigged by an employee of the branch.

“There is no regional conference of the ANC that will be convened in BCM region without this matter being addressed,” Ayanda Matiti said.

Matiti, a former ANC Youth League chairman in the province, led the group together with Joe Jordan.

Both Matiti and Jordan have ambitions of becoming regional chairman and secretary respectively.

The more than 400 ANC members who marched yesterday also marched to the ANC regional offices two weeks ago to demand the removal of the regional executive committee (REC) and tabling of ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte’s report into membership rigging.

The membership forms alleged to be rigged at the Mdantsane FNB branch were backdated for more than six months.

ANC rules do not allow members to vote if they have been members for less than six months.

Yesterday’s protest started at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium and the 400 members braved cold and windy weather to march to the Mdantsane City Mall.

When the members arrived at the mall, a section of the parking lot was cordoned off. March leaders handed over a memorandum of demands to FNB national CEO for public sector banking Hans Hillebrand.

“As the First National Bank we view this matter very seriously,” Hillebrand said.

The list of grievances demanded the bank:

• Avail them immediately of the contents of an internal investigation regarding the backdating;
• Hand over the internal investigation report to law enforcement agencies;
• Lay criminal charges with law enforcement agencies against all those implicated in the fraudulent activity;
• Name and shame all those implicated in the fraudulent backdating;
• Issue a public apology to their entire membership and leadership of the ANC; and
• Provide details on the number of forms that were a product of the fraudulent activity.

Matiti received loud cheers when he said they would also be laying charges of fraud against the FNB official who was found guilty by internal processes of backdating the forms.

The official has since been fired.

“The bank must explain to us the extent of this fraud,” he said.

Provincial ANC secretary Oscar Mabuyane on Monday confirmed that complainants had made reference to the backdating of bank forms in two BCM wards.

“In a Duncan Village case, for example, we still need answers as to why some members chose to leave nearby FNB branches in town, and chose to go to Mdantsane to pay their dues,” said Mabuyane.