Former ANC Women’s League Bathabile Dlamini is not eligible to contest for a position on the ANC national executive committee (NEC) because of a perjury conviction.
The former social development minister was informed she was ineligible to stand for a national executive committee position, according to the party’s electoral committee led by Kgalema Motlanthe.
Dlamini was one of the front-runners in the race for NEC positions, making it to number 15 on the list released by the committee last week after receiving 856 branch nominations.
On Wednesday, The ANC’s Electoral Committee head, Kgalema Motlanthe, sent Dlamini a letter in which he explained that a process to vet nominees had found information which negatively affected Dlamini’s eligibility to stand for nomination as a candidate for any NEC positions, including as an additional member.
In the letter Motlanthe wrote: “The vetting information at our disposal reveals that you have a historical record of being found guilty of a serious crime in a court of law for which the prison sentence had been 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 as per the following rules which have been approved by the NEC,” Motlanthe said.
This relates to a court ruling which found the former minister of social development guilty of perjury for lying under oath during an inquiry into the social grants debacle at the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa).
She was sentenced to four years imprisonment or a R200 000 fine and opted for the latter.
Dlamini had concealed from the judge that she had set up a parallel structure to Sassa with “workstreams” that reported directly to her.
Source: The Citizen, News24, Sowetan Live, Daily Maverick, Eyewitness News, image from Twitter: @TheTruthPanther