Days before the ANC’s elective conference, the former president of the women’s league Bathabile Dlamini has been disqualified from being nominated as part of the national executive committee (NEC).
In a leaked letter to the media, the chairman of the election committee, Kgalema Motlanthe, said a process carried out to vette the nominees through the ruling party’s electoral agency found information that negatively affected Dlamini’s eligibility to run for office. candidate for all NEC positions.
Investigative information noted that Dlamini had been found guilty of a felony with a sentence of more than six months.
“To be specific, you are summarily disqualified as a candidate for all NEC positions, including additional members during the 55th national conference,” Motlanthe wrote.
This could spell the end of Dlamini’s political career in the ANC. The staunch ally of former president Jacob Zuma was found guilty of perjury in March and sentenced to four years in prison or a R200,000 fine for lying under oath while testifying during an investigation launched by the constitutional court in 2018 into a scandal of payments of social grants involving the South African Social Security Agency.
Retired judge Bernard Ngoepe chaired this investigation. The case against Dlamini, who was Minister of Social Development at the time of the scandal, will continue in March.
Dlamini has faced a mountain of problems in recent months, including losing her powerful position as president of the ANC Women’s League when the structure was dissolved in April after the ANC accepted a recommendation from Thandi Modise.
The NEC named Modise to head a panel to assess the state of the league. This came after the guilty verdict against Dlamini in the welfare debacle.
In April, Dlamini fought for the job of coordinating a work team to run the women’s league. However, this was rejected, and her opponents argued that she would use the task force to ensure that she emerged as president of the league for another term.
Dlamini, whose influence in the ANC women’s league remains strong, has said she is willing to return for another term as leader.
