‘Thuggery must be exposed’: MP Boy Mamabolo undeterred after losing first legal bid against ANC, exits parliament

Outgoing ANC MP Boy Mamabolo says he is not discouraged after losing the first stage of his legal challenge against the governing party, accusing it of illegally removing his name from its parliament list.

The Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday dismissed Mamabolo's urgent application with costs, citing there were no substantial reasons to have the case heard on an urgent basis. This means Mamabolo will not be returning to parliament.

Mamabolo's attorney Fundile Sangoni argued in court that his client was unfairly disqualified from making it to parliament for another term due to factionalism within the party. Based on documents he received from the ANC, Sangoni said the party had moved Mamabolo from number five on the Limpopo national candidate list to 22. 

“The province of Limpopo has been allocated 20 seats by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), and [this means] only 20 people from Limpopo can be allocated seats in the National Assembly. They took him from number five, without explanation, to 22, which exceeds the number of seats. That is an effective removal. That is why the IEC's list doesn't have his name because anyone who is at 21 and onwards cannot be on the list,” he said. 

Mamabolo said his “misfortunes” started in May 2023 when he received a text from electoral committee secretary Chief Livhuwani Matsila advising him to align with the ANC chairperson in the Peter Mokaba region, John Mpe, to “avoid problems” relating to the list. 

“I later established Chief Matsila’s advice was not as innocuous as I understood it to be. He was cautioning me to align myself with a particular faction within the ANC to ensure my name remains on the candidate list without difficulties. This will be important when I address the court about the apparent unlawful manipulation of the ANC candidate list. I ask the court to set aside the decision by the ANC to remove me from the candidate list,” he said.

Mamabolo told the party in an internal letter that his removal from parliament would negatively affect his family, particularly his minor children.

“The ANC’s unjustified decision to remove my name from its candidate list has detrimental and far-reaching consequences for me. The decision without any justification irremediably strips me of my constitutional political rights to stand for public office in the forthcoming elections.”

Representing the ANC, advocate Sydwell Sikhwari told the court Mamabolo had failed to provide proof of a matric qualification. He said the ANC had renewed criteria for its parliamentary candidates and enforced the need for MPs to have matric qualifications.

“If the ANC took this kind of a candidate to parliament it would be a classic case where the public would revolt and say 'you are bringing a person tainted by so many things'. He says he has a matric certificate but refuses to produce it. We cannot take his word for it. It is an important requirement. It is not only important for the benefit of the ANC, but for the people of South Africa that parliament, as a legislative arm of government, has people with proper credentials,” he said. 

Despite the court dismissing the application, Mamabolo said he would re-enroll the matter in court before the elections.

“The matter was dismissed on an urgent basis. We can put it on a normal roll and get a date as soon as May, just before the elections. There is no way we can allow thuggery to take place in the organisation. Thuggery must be exposed. The battle is not yet over,” he said.

In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, Mamabolo said the governing party used his failure to provide a matric certificate as an excuse for “unfair removal from the list”.

“I am a sitting MP and I am not a new entrant. The rules were changed last year to say preferably a candidate must have a matric or post-matric certificate. I attached my post-matric qualification of paralegal on my CV when I went for interviews. The paralegal I did with the University of Johannesburg.

“There is no way you can do paralegal with the university without a matric certificate. Yes, they did write to me in November to say I needed to submit a matric certificate,  but that cannot be the issue at hand. Any person can go to parliament, whether they have grade R or sub A. We sat with [former] president [Jacob] Zuma there without having all the proper documents,” he said.

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