Ngcukayitobi threatens to sue Mbalula over IEC list claims - TimesLIVE
ANC Eastern Cape provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi has threatened to haul party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula to court for defamation, escalating a bitter internal battle over the ANC’s candidate-list debacle.
Ngcukayitobi’s lawyers have demanded that Mbalula retract and apologise for claims in a report to ANC national leaders that allegedly pins blame for the Eastern Cape’s failure to submit key municipal candidate lists on the provincial secretary.
The report, according to the Sunday Times, says Ngcukayitobi submitted the province’s final list to the ANC operations centre just 29 minutes before the IEC deadline. It also raises suspicion that he altered an NEC-approved list without a mandate.
But Ngcukayitobi’s attorneys say the allegations are false and malicious and designed to shift responsibility away from Mbalula.
In a sharply worded letter, they accuse Mbalula, as the ANC’s administrative head, of setting the province up for failure by allegedly convening an unlawful provincial conference, installing a provincial task team, and sidelining the elected leadership until just weeks before the deadline.
“The conduct was calculated and in any event resulted in the failure to submit the lists on time or at all,” the letter states.
The lawyers insist Ngcukayitobi was not responsible for changing any lists, alleging instead that Mbalula personally instructed alterations, including the removal of Andile Lungisa from Nelson Mandela Bay’s proportional representation list.
Ngcukayitobi has given Mbalula until noon on September 22 to issue a full retraction. If he fails to do so, the provincial secretary says he will approach the high court.
Ngcukayitobi is the second high-profile ANC leader to take Mbalula to court over the Eastern Cape list crisis. Last week TimesLIVE reported that ANC national executive committee member Andile Lungisa had approached the high court against Mbalula in his personal and official capacities over the removal of his name from the party’s candidate list.
In his affidavit, Lungisa alleged that Mbalula had abused his office. He claimed he had been confidentially informed that Mbalula personally instructed ANC officials responsible for compiling and submitting the lists to remove his name.
I reserve all my rights to lodge perjury charges against him, as it has become intolerable to witness the destruction of the organisation by Mr Mbalula.
Lungisa also accused Mbalula of deliberately creating instability in the Eastern Cape through the appointment of a provincial task team, the subsequent reinstatement of the provincial executive committee and the attendance of regional secretaries at some NEC meetings.
“This chaos was intentionally created to destabilise the province because of personal ambitions,” Lungisa alleged.
He accused Mbalula of using “diversionary tactics” rather than accounting for the alleged harm caused by the lists debacle, including by failing to convene the NEC.
Lungisa argued that internal remedies had been rendered futile because Mbalula was allegedly avoiding accountability.
“I reserve all my rights to lodge perjury charges against him, as it has become intolerable to witness the destruction of the organisation by Mr Mbalula,” Lungisa said in his affidavit.
The clash threatens to turn the ANC’s humiliating candidate-list crisis into a full-blown legal and political battle at the top echelons of the party.
