Smallnyana skeletons in the cupboard? ANC mayoral candidates ‘still not fully vetted’
· Citizen
With nearly 10 weeks to go until South Africans head to the polls, the ANC has reportedly still not fully established whether some of their mayoral candidates are fit for office.
Most political parties are already on the campaign trail. The DA has put forward Helen Zille as its Joburg mayoral candidate, while ActionSA has chosen former mayor Herman Mashaba. The EFF has nominated Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng.
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However, the ANC has still not revealed who they want as their mayor, should they win the elections. Instead, in an 11th-hour u-turn, they announced a shortlist of candidates on Saturday.
The decision was reportedly to keep the peace and maintain unity in regions where factionalism has already reared its ugly head and threatens to tear the party apart.
Now, according to the Sunday Times, another reason for the delay is that not all candidates have been properly vetted.
“Some of these candidates have not yet been fully vetted. Imagine what would happen if we announced them and the next thing the newspapers came out with stories about them.
“Yes, they will be vetted, even if they did well, so that if they have a criminal record we can’t announce them. We want to make sure that everything is clean,” a high-placed source told the publication.
Avoiding implosion
The party is publicly relaxed about the situation, with party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula saying on Saturday that it was not about the candidate but the party.
“The ANC campaign is not dependent on candidates. It is driven by the ANC and the face of it is the president,” he said.
The president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is the one who reportedly decided that all shortlisted candidates should campaign, so that losing factions don’t sabotage or stop working for the party.
It came amid Ekurhuleni Mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza’s decision to fire his MMC for finance and fellow mayoral candidate rival Jongizizwe Dlabathi.
Sources told The Citizen that the move not to announce a single candidate for each metro and municipality was meant to “protect the campaign” and ensure that the party goes to the elections as a united front.
“This is more about protecting the campaign… the party does not want to get into a situation where those that did not make it stop campaigning for the party because they did not make it,” said a source.
The party’s national chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, also told SABC News that part of the reason a single candidate was not announced for each municipality is that those that did not make it may want to “defect” to other political parties.
Additional reporting by Itumeleng Mafisa