Thuthu Zuma takes aim at ANC ‘boss’ Mbalula after Electoral Court defeat

African National Congress (ANC) Johannesburg regional executive committee member, Thuthukile Zuma has criticised the party’s leadership for calling on members to remain “calm, disciplined and silent” following the ANC’s Electoral Court defeat over its candidate lists.

Zuma questioned why members were being asked to keep “calm”, considering that those responsible for the party’s failed submission process had not been held accountable.

“We are told that we must be calm, disciplined and silent. No accountability taken by the leadership about the manner in which the submission process was handled,” Zuma wrote on X.

She described the handling of the process as “extreme negligence” and suggested it could potentially amount to “internal sabotage”.

“Things are not normal in the ANC.”

Her comments followed the Electoral Court’s dismissal of the ANC’s application to have 181 excluded candidates reinstated for the November 4 local government elections.

The ANC had challenged the Electoral Commission’s decision to exclude the candidates after problems with the submission of its lists. The party argued that candidate information had been captured on the IEC’s system before the deadline, but the court rejected its application.

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Rather than relying on the courts after the deadline had passed, Zuma said the ANC should have ensured its political and administrative obligations were fulfilled in the first place.

“@MYANC We shouldn’t be exercising our legal rights. We should have exercised our political responsibility to submit our lists on time,” she wrote.

Zuma also directed her criticism at ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, accusing him of spending too much time in the public spotlight while organisational work was left undone.

“Instead you have @MbalulaFikile obsessed with doing media interviews telling people how he is the boss,” she wrote.

She questioned whether the party’s call for discipline should apply equally to its leadership.

“It’s the expectation that we must just be ‘silent and disciplined’ as members. Where was the discipline of the Secretary General to do the work of the organisation that he was elected to do,” Zuma wrote.

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The comments put renewed focus on the ANC’s internal handling of the candidate-list process and the political responsibility of its senior leadership following the court ruling.

The ANC has maintained that it was not seeking preferential treatment from the IEC and has said it will pursue the legal avenues available to it following the judgment.

Zuma’s criticism comes against the backdrop of a separate legal battle involving Mbalula and her mother, ANC senior leader Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Dlamini- Zuma is involved in a Johannesburg High Court defamation case with Mbalula stemming from allegations surrounding payments linked to his campaign for the ANC secretary-general position ahead of the party’s 2022 national conference.

The former minister also said the money was used to secure President Cyril Ramaphosa’s second term as the leader of the ANC.

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