The African National Congress (ANC) in the Eastern Cape says it remains shocked by the removal of names from the organisation’s candidate lists submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
This was revealed by ANC Eastern Cape chairperson Oscar Mabuyane in an interview with the Sunday Times this week.
Mabuyane was asked when the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) had finalised its candidate lists.
He said the PEC had completed the process well ahead of the deadline.
“We finalised our list early enough. Our extended PEC meeting was set a week before, so when the extended NEC meeting was convened, we had already processed our list as the PEC.
“Yes, arising out of the extended NEC meeting, there were areas that needed to be attended to. Those areas were attended to and fixed.
“When our list was taken to the last NEC meeting, which was on the Thursday preceding Friday—the deadline—our list was already at a national level, idling, ready to be registered.
“That is why we are all shocked about all the manoeuvring and tampering. The changes that are alleged now—we know it is no longer just an allegation. It is an issue of tampering. Our lists were tampered with.
“Regional chairpersons were removed. That is what we want to know: how were they removed? Is it a coincidence when you look at these individuals who were removed from the list being PEC members?
“Is it an issue of a system error? Is it an issue of IDs and all that? These are the answers that we are basically looking for.
“It is interesting how those leaders and names were inserted, and how those other names would have been removed from certain numbers and moved up to other numbers,” Mabuyane said.
The ANC has called for clarity on the circumstances surrounding the alleged alterations to its candidate lists ahead of the upcoming Local Government Elections.
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