Mthembu makes damning claims of attempts to rig election in favour of NDZ

Senior ANC member Jackson Mthembu has made damning allegations of there being desperate attempts to buy votes and rig the party's national election in favour of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Mthembu took to Facebook just four days ahead of the ANC elective conference to accuse desperate individuals of trying to fraudulently push for Dlamini-Zuma's victory.

"Desperation is forcing some people in the ANC to allocate delegates to branches that failed to hold BGMs (branch general meetings). These attempts of allocating fraudulent delegates are failing together with attempts to replace CR (Cyril Ramaphosa) delegates with bogus ones. The CR branches are fighting viciously all these unANC tendencies and they are winning. Some people have now realised that they don’t have delegate numbers‚ thus these fraudulent despicable attempts‚" Mthembu wrote.

"They have now resorted to the last [throwing] of the dice‚ they are desperately trying to buy CR delegates and still failing dismally. CR delegates have told them that their souls and the revolution is not for sale! The question we need to ask is why this desperation on the other side? Is it fuelled by Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa's publicly stated intention to root out state capture corruption after he becomes ANC President? Do these people have something to hide?"

Mthembu's post comes amid court battles from some party branches who are trying to prove fault in how the presidential nominations have taken place.

On Tuesday‚ some members of the ANC in the Free State filed papers with the Bloemfontein High Court‚ wanting it to declare the outcomes of the provincial general meeting of last month and the two day conference it held on Sunday and Monday‚ null‚ void‚ unlawful and unconstitutional.

In its certificate of urgency‚ the applicants in the case said: "What renders the matter urgent is that if the provincial conference is not nullified before the national conference… delegates that were improperly appointed to represent the province of the Free State will taint the processes of the upcoming national conference.”

Meanwhile‚ the ANC has managed to talk presidential candidate Matthews Phosa and his team out of pursuing a court case around the nomination of Mpumalanga's candidate to succeed Zuma.

Dali Mpofu‚ representing Phosa's team‚ told the High Court in Johannesburg that they had resolved to sort out the issue through the party’s internal structures.

Phosa had gone to court after the Mpumalanga branches failed to single out the name of their nominated presidential candidate and had instead said they were nominating "unity".

“We have agreed that the unity abstract is no longer there. It is not a candidate. It was just a shadow and it won’t even affect the delegates‚” Phosa’s campaign manager‚ Ronnie Malomane‚ told TimesLIVE.

He said the ANC had also agreed to investigate concerns raised by Phosa concerning what he said were irregularities in the nominations process in the province.

Part B of the court process‚ which involves the constitutionality of the nominations process‚ was yet to be heard in court and this would most likely only happen in 2018.

Meanwhile‚ the Grahamstown High Court dismissed with costs a bid to nullify the outcome of the ANC’s Eastern Cape provincial elective conference which was held in September.

Some members from the OR Tambo‚ Joe Gqabi and Amathola regions had sought to set aside the election of provincial chair Oscar Mabuyane and his executive committee.

The issue was whether or not the conference was legitimately convened in the first place and whether - even if it was - it could lawfully have been allowed to continue after violence broke out and some 46% of the delegates‚ most of whom supported former chair Phumulo Masualle‚ walked out.

As the battles unfold ahead of the conference‚ Judge Edwin Molahlehi‚ who was prepared to hear the Mpumalanga saga‚ offered advice to the ANC.

He reminded them that the ANC constitution was a binding arrangement between its members and the party‚ adding that not all disputes needed to be resolved by lawyers.

"The best way of resolving conflict is through negotiations and not through fighting and running to courts‚" Molahlehi said.