ANC election-list fight turns ugly as Mbalula faces court threat - IOL

It’s ANC versus ANC as Eastern Cape secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi said he would not hesitate to take secretary-general Fikile Mbalula to court over claims he was responsible for the party’s election-list scandal.

Ngcukayitobi’s lawyers said Mbalula’s claims were defamatory and that he had personally ordered a Nelson Mandela Bay candidate to be removed from the party’s list.

Mbalula has until noon on Tuesday to withdraw the claims, or Ngcukayitobi, through his lawyers, said he would take the defamation fight to court.

Mbalula was approached for comment, and his response will be added if and when it is received.

The letter, dated Thursday and sent by Mabuza Attorneys to Mbalula at Luthuli House, followed a report he compiled on the ANC’s candidate-list failures, which was published on the front page of Sunday Times at the weekend.

The newspaper reported that Mbalula’s report said Ngcukayitobi had sent the Eastern Cape’s final candidate list to the party’s operations centre just 29 minutes before the deadline, identifying this as the main reason four key municipalities in the province were affected.

The report also said Mbalula suspected Ngcukayitobi of changing the list without authorisation, removing some names and adding others that had not been approved by the national executive committee.

The ANC missed the Electoral Commission of SA's 5pm deadline on August 28 to register candidates in six municipalities, four of them in the Eastern Cape.

The party then went to the Electoral Court, arguing that a technical fault on the commission's online system had stopped its lists for the six municipalities from going through.

The commission, however, said the ANC had simply not finished the final submission step.

The court on Wednesday dismissed the ANC's case, finding the party never pressed the "submit as final" button when it loaded its lists, and the commission's audit trail showed no system fault.

The case concerned 181 ANC candidates.

ANC spokeswoman Mahlengi Bhengu said on Wednesday the party would appeal.

The feud between the two men predates the court ruling, with Ngcukayitobi writing to Mbalula on August 31 to demand a detailed account of the candidates the ANC had submitted to the commission, and giving his office until 1pm on September 1 to reply.

In Thursday's letter, Ngcukayitobi's lawyers said Mbalula had caused false statements to be published that damaged their client's integrity, standing and reputation.

They said Mbalula's report accused Ngcukayitobi of ineptitude or negligence by submitting the list to Mbalula's office at about 4.30pm on the closing day, a claim the lawyers said Mbalula knew to be false.

"To your knowledge the claims you made are false, defamatory and/or intended to carry a defamatory innuendo," the letter said.

"Your statement therefore implies that our client is in possible breaches of ANC policy, which is defamatory by its very nature in that such conduct would be prejudicial to countless people and/or communities."

The letter then turned the accusation of tampering back on Mbalula, naming former Nelson Mandela Bay politician Andile Lungisa as the candidate removed on his instruction.

"Our client is only aware of [an] instance where you personally instructed, in his presence, the alteration of the list, including the removal of Mr Andile Lungisa's name from the Proportional Representation List of Nelson Mandela Bay," the letter said.

"To your knowledge, our client is not responsible for the alteration of any lists."

The lawyers laid the failure at Mbalula's door and linked it to the provincial task team installed in the Eastern Cape this year.

"In addition to their falsity, the impugned statements are motivated by malice and the desire to shift blame from yourself, where it belongs in that as the administrative head of the ANC, you engaged in a series of conduct which culminated in the failure to submit the lists, over a protracted period of time," the letter said.

"Such conduct includes but is not limited to causing an illegal provincial conference to be convened in March 2026, illegally installing a so-called Provincial Task Team, sidelining the duly elected Provincial Executive Committee and the Provincial Secretary until the belated 'reinstatement' thereof only a few weeks before the IEC deadlines.

"Such conduct was calculated and in any event resulted in the failure to submit the lists on time or at all."

Ngcukayitobi wanted a court to find that Mbalula had defamed him.

"He instructs us to demand a full and unconditional and mutually agreed retraction of the falsehoods that you have published against him," the letter said.

"You have until 12pm on Tuesday to retract your lies, failing which court proceedings will indeed be instituted in the appropriate Division of the High Court without any further notice to you than this one."

The lawyers also warned Mbalula against speaking publicly about the matter.

"As it has become characteristic of yourself in public engagements on ANC matters, our client is concerned that upon receipt of this letter you will make uncouth public pronouncements about this matter, and urges you to refrain from doing so," the letter said.

"And expressly warns that should you resort to such antics, that will be regarded as aggravation of the defamation and will be reflected in the anticipated court proceedings as such."