SA Politics Part 14 - The New Dawn turns to Dusk

ANC admits 252 ID numbers were wrong before election row - IOL​

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The ANC has admitted that 252 identity numbers on its own files were incorrect before problems emerged with the party’s candidate nomination process for the November 4 local government elections.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula made the admission on Tuesday while giving an account of the party’s internal processes around the candidate lists.

Mbalula said an internal report, which had been received by the ANC’s National Officials, examined the nomination process from the branch level through to the final stage of capturing candidate information.

The report identified nine stages in the process.

“It finds that 252 identity numbers on our own files were wrong before any of this began. Written down at branch meetings and never verified,” Mbalula said.

He said the ANC’s Electoral Committee had warned the party about the issue as early as June.

Mbalula says no single person can be blamed​

Mbalula said the nomination process involved several structures, making responsibility a collective matter.

“And this was a process of nine stages. And eight of them are collective structures,” he said.

The National Executive Committee was among those structures.

Mbalula also acknowledged his own role in the process, saying he had approved the lists for submission on August 28, subject to conditions.

“I approved this list for lodgment in front of witnesses with conditions. And I stand by that approval,” he said.

He said the ANC would not identify one person as being responsible for the problems.

“So when I’m asked who is to blame, I give you the collective answer,” Mbalula said.

“And I give it without hesitation. There is no one at the end of this story.”

He said accountability would now follow the ANC’s internal structures and the report’s findings.

“The report is before the structures. They will take it, and they will decide. And the movement will tell you what they decided,” he said.

ANC refuses to name staff members​

Mbalula said there had been suggestions within the ANC that deliberate wrongdoing may have taken place.

He called on anyone with evidence to submit it to the party’s structures.

“There have been suggestions from within the movement of deliberate wrongdoing. I say to every comrade, at every level. If you hold evidence, the movement’s structures are open to receive it. And I will act on it,” he said.

However, Mbalula said the ANC would not publicly put its members on trial or name staff members who had worked on the candidate lists.

“What the ANC will not do is to try its own comrades in the press,” he said.

“And it will not name the staff members who did their work on the 28th August under instruction.”

He said those staff members had no platform or spokesperson to respond for themselves.

“That is not accountability,” Mbalula said.

“It is the movement using its own employees as cover. And I will not permit it.”

ANC introduces 12 measures to fix process​

Mbalula said the report had set out 12 measures to address weaknesses in the ANC’s candidate nomination process, with officials already working on them.

One of the measures is to introduce a locked date for every candidate list, seven days before the IEC’s deadline, after which no changes would be allowed.

Another measure is to upgrade the ANC’s membership system so that members’ identity numbers, and therefore those of nominees, can be verified against the National Population Register.

The ANC will also seek an interface with the Department of Home Affairs and the IEC to make the verification process automatic.

Mbalula said this was aimed at ensuring the backlog of unverified identity numbers was dealt with before the next election rather than being discovered during the final week.

The party also plans to have four accredited users on the IEC’s system and designate a person whose sole responsibility on submission day would be to confirm that every council had been completed before the deadline.

“That is what putting our house in order looks like,” Mbalula said.

“And we are doing it before we ask anything of anybody else.”
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Read the full article at the link below:

iol.co.za

ANC admits 252 ID numbers were wrong before election row

The ANC has admitted to serious flaws in its candidate nomination process, with an internal report identifying 252 incorrect identity numbers and prompting new measures to prevent a repeat.
iol.co.za iol.co.za
 
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