The ANC’s selection process to find replacements for two Buffalo City Metro ward councillors who recently died has been mired with controversy, culminating in disgruntled groups storming the party’s provincial headquarters in Qonce to lodge disputes.
By-elections are set to take place in the metro’s wards 12 and 20 on October 9 after councillors Andile Phethani and Aphiwe Gcwabe passed away.
After public engagements in these two wards, a faction of party supporters cried foul in both instances after the preferred candidates did not make the cut, with some charging that selection processes were manipulated to favour unpopular candidates.
In ward 12, which encompasses areas around Smiling Valley and parts of Mdantsane’s NU 1, there were initially 13 candidates for the vacant position.
Three of those candidates later withdrew from the race and 10 went into a voting process to determine who would lead the ward on behalf of the ANC when by-elections are held next month.
While votes were shared among the 10 candidates, the main contest was between Nolundi Mdledle and Dumisani Ntyabontyi, who was later declared the winner after votes were tallied.
According to results seen by the Dispatch, Mdledle was victorious in four of the five voting districts, amassing 467 votes, while Ntyabontyi only won one district but amassed a total of 600 votes. That gave him the nod to contest the upcoming by-elections as an ANC candidate.
This created the dispute, with some party members arguing that as Mdledle won four of the five voting districts, she deserved to be the candidate.
The disgruntled group accused Dr WB Rubusana ANC regional secretary Antonio Carels of having a hand in the alleged manipulation of votes in their voting districts.
A disgruntled party member alleged that people from outside the ward were bussed to the Nontsikelelo Primary School voting station in NU 1, where Ntyabontyi received many of his votes, even though they did not belong to that particular ward.
An ANC member who asked to remain anonymous said unknown people, mostly from nearby Emivundleni area, used fraudulent temporal identity documents to vote in those elections.
“There were many people who came with temporal IDs on the day, documents that bore their faces, but not their names and ID numbers,” said the party member.
“They used the names and ID numbers of people listed on the ANC’s database list for the ward; people who hailed from Emivundleni area, even though they had attached their faces in such temporal IDs.
“People were bussed from Scenery Park, Ziphunzana and NU 12 to come vote in our ward. This was basically fraud perpetuated by the regional secretary (Carels) and his people.
“This is why we opted to lodge a dispute with the province, for them to intervene in the stealing of our ward by Ntyabontyi and the regional secretary.”
Another member said Ntyabontyi’s name did not appear on the ANC database list as he had changed his surname and ID number in 2016.
“In the party’s list, he appears as Dumisani Dyeyi, a member in good standing, with a particular ID number, but he contested under the Ntyabontyi surname and a different ID number,” the member said.
“So he was not meant to contest as his new assumed surname and ID number did not appear on the party list.
“We believe that Mamu Mdledle, who won four of the five voting districts, was supposed to be our ward candidate, and not Ntyabontyi.”
While Ntyabontyi could not be reached for comment on Friday, the Dispatch has seen a home affairs 2016 document confirming his change of surname and ID number.
In ward 20, similar alleged irregularities and voter manipulation were said to be the order of the day.
The ward covers areas around Mdantsane’s NU 6, 7 and 8, and has four voting districts
While four ANC members had raised their hands to take over from Gcwabe, the main contest was between Nkululeko Mbekwa and Lwando Pisane, who emerged victorious.
As in ward 12, Pisane’s win was not without controversy.
This is because Mbekwa won three of the four voting districts with 667 votes, but lost the contest to Pisane, who only won in one district, but had 821 votes.
Mbekwa’s supporters were left fuming, alleging vote manipulation.
They, too, accused Carels and "some provincial executive committee members with vested interest in the region" of having a hand in the alleged fraudulent process.
Members from both wards on Tuesday boarded more than 20 taxis to Calata House, the ANC’s provincial headquarters, to lodge their disputes.
On Thursday Carels denied any wrongdoing, saying: “Our (job) as the regional leadership was just to observe the process, while various (ANC) PEC (provincial executive committee) deployees and the electoral commission were presiding over the voting processes.”
He said those who were implicating him in alleged vote-rigging, were "just mischievous people, with an agenda I do not know about."
ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi confirmed receiving the dispute letters from both wards, but said he believed the voting process was above board.
He said the provincial ANC would look into the lodged disputes at an appropriate time.
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