The fate of 32 red-flagged ANC leaders is now in the hands of the party’s national integrity commission.
These were people who were identified as having transgressed the ANC’s ethics code but happened to make it onto the list of candidates who would go to parliament or provincial legislatures after the May 8 elections.
The Dispatch’s sister paper, the Sunday Times, reported last weekend that the national vetting committee had identified 32 senior party leaders in a report which would be handed over to the national integrity commission for further scrutiny.
The paper reported that the list included “the usual offenders” and those who have been seriously implicated in the state capture probe.
But the Dispatch has also been reporting on controversial figures who had been nominated by Eastern Cape ANC branches and have since made it onto the final ANC nomination lists.
They include several controversial figures who are facing criminal charges for allegations of fraud, such as former Buffalo City Metro mayor Zukiswa Ncitha and the then-deputy mayor Themba Tinta, as well as BCM councillors Sindiswa Gomba and Luleka Simon-Ndzele.
Also on the list is former BCM mayor and ANC member of parliament, Zukisa Faku, who was found guilty of defrauding the municipality when she used a municipal credit card to purchase clothing items abroad.
Also listed is former Amathole mayor Nomasikizi Khonza, who is also facing fraud charges for allegedly swindling millions from the municipality’s coffers for a beauty contest a few years ago.
ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi, who attended the two-day national executive committee said: “The IC [integrity commission] has not wrapped up its work and so we have not yet received a report in this regard.”
Asked if they had been informed whether there were Eastern Cape ANC members who were identified among the rejected nominees, provincial chairperson Oscar Mabuyane said: “We don’t have the names because the report has not been tabled yet.”
ANC acting national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa confirmed the item had not been discussed by the time of writing.
“It is difficult to talk about names when the report has not even been tabled to the NEC,” Kodwa said...