LISTEN | Mbalula says some members are ‘lazy liars’ as ANC faces IEC heat - TimesLIVE

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says he does not want to be pitied over the party’s Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) saga, in which the ANC missed a crucial deadline to submit candidate lists in some municipalities.

The party blamed the blunder on a technical “system glitch” that occurred while it was submitting its lists on the day of the IEC deadline. The IEC has stood firm, saying no such glitch occurred on its end and that it will not grant any political party an extension beyond the deadline.

This means the ANC could be shut out of proportional representation (PR) seats in the affected councils — as PR seats are allocated from candidate lists parties submit ahead of time, missing the deadline leaves the party with no list to draw those seats from, regardless of how it performs at the polls in those areas.

“I know I’m the first stop. When people want to vent or to be disrespectful, some of them come to me; I am the stop station. I’m unbendable steel; don’t feel sorry for me. I chose this knowingly,” Mbalula said, addressing the ANC women’s league in Ebony Park.

Some ANC members, including Eastern Cape provincial structures, have demanded answers from Mbalula’s office over the incomplete lists.

Speaking in isiXhosa, Mbalula said: “I am not scared of ANC members. I understand the ANC and its members. I know the duplicitous, I know the honest, and I know the liars who are not working for the party; they specialise in being vocal. You’d think the majority of our problems come from social media posts and content, but it’s ANC members.”