'A plot to rig ANC poll' - Mthembu's startling allegations

ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu says there are desperate attempts to buy votes and rig the party's national congress election in favour of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Mthembu made these damning allegations on Facebook four days before the 54th elective conference, accusing certain individuals of trying fraudulently to push for Dlamini-Zuma's victory at Nasrec in Johannesburg. The five-day conference starts on Saturday.

"Desperation is forcing some people in the ANC to allocate delegates to branches that failed to hold BGMs [branch general meetings]," he wrote. "These attempts of allocating fraudulent delegates are failing together with attempts to replace CR [Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa] delegates with bogus ones.

"The CR branches are fighting viciously all these unANC tendencies and they're winning.

"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 Ramaphosa's publicly stated intention to root out state capture corruption?"

Mthembu's post comes amid court battles from some party branches who are trying to prove faulty nomination processes.

On Tuesday, some ANC members in the Free State filed papers at the Bloemfontein High Court asking it to declare the outcomes of last month's provincial general meeting and the two-day conference it held on Sunday and Monday null and void, unlawful and unconstitutional, BusinessLive reported.

Meanwhile, the ANC has talked presidential candidate Mathews Phosa out of pursuing a court case concerning the nomination of the Mpumalanga candidate for Zuma's successor.

Representing Phosa's team, Dali Mpofu told the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday that they had resolved to sort out the issue through ANC internal structures.

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

In the Eastern Cape on Tuesday, the Grahamstown High Court dismissed with costs a bid to nullify the outcome of the provincial elective conference held in September.