Two senior ANC officials in the Western Cape are being investigated for allegedly doctoring and then leaking a party audit in an attempt to damn the party’s provincial secretary, Mcebisi Skwatsha.
The version of the audit reported on page one of the Cape Times on Tuesday purported to find extensive corruption and fraud in relation to membership and called for the provincial ANC leadership to be dissolved.
The leaked document was styled as the outcome of an investigation set in motion by the ANC’s national leadership in an effort to end persistent in-fighting in the province.
But party officials say there is evidence that two ANC leaders obtained the draft report, inserted damning criticism of Skwatsha and the provincial executive committee, and then leaked it in an attempt to build support for Skwatsha’s rivals.
Three senior ANC officials have told the Mail & Guardian that the two individuals under investigation are Boland region secretary Mohamed Majiet and chair Dan Kotze. Both men were suspended from their posts earlier this year following claims of misconduct.
The two men are among Skwatsha’s most determined foes and were allegedly caught up in the imbroglio surrounding his stabbing at an ANC meeting in Worcester two months ago.
The leaked version of the report says that the provincial secretariat should be ”held responsible for the party’s sorry state of affairs”. It goes on to suggest that regional and provincial conferences that have not yet taken place should be run by the ANC national office ”instead of regional secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha and the provincial executive, to legitimise the process”.
ANC national spokesperson Jessie Duarte questioned the credibility of the leaked draft, saying it was part of a campaign to discredit the provincial executive in the Western Cape.
At the time of his stabbing, Skwatsha said he ”strongly suspected” that the attack on him in Worcester had ”something to do with the suspension of the Boland regional executive committee [REC]. People were unhappy with the decision of the provincial executive committee to suspend them. We suspect that these events are linked, and it’s being investigated,” he said.
The M&G has a copy of the seven-page leaked version of the audit report. Senior party figures say that the first few pages of the draft are authentic but that two pages damning Skwatsha and the provincial leadership were added.
This allegation is supported by the fact that the final pages are in a different font from the rest of the document, and the language changes, referring to branches as ”ours” and ”theirs” along factional lines.
”Out of the 68 branches [in the province] only 39 passed and 29 failed the national audit. From the 39 branches, 22 [are] ours and 17 [are] theirs,” the leaked version reads.
The falsified draft audit report details corruption and fraud in relation to membership, non-quorate branch AGMs and questions about membership payments.
”In the Boland this happened mostly after the [dissolution] of the REC,” it says. ”Furthermore, there is no need for the PEC [provincial executive committee, headed by Skwatsha] to operate further. They must be dissolved because this report is an indictment against the PEC.”
Those components of the audit that the M&G has confirmed as authentic, however, offer little comfort to the provincial leadership.
”Seventy percent of the membership was not counted due to the arrears issue; 80% of the membership joining dates have been backdated; some branches were launched and held AGMs with participation by underage teenagers; some membership application forms were tampered with or not signed by members themselves; there were no deposit slips as proof of payment for membership; and 70% claimed to have made a bulk payment in the Overberg. Four branches doubled or trebled their membership immediately after their launch AGMs,” the undoctored draft audit found.
Repeated attempts by the M&G to contact Majiet or Kotze were unsuccessful. Provincial chairperson James Ngculu, who, along with axed premier Ebrahim Rasool, heads the faction opposing Skwatsha, declined to comment, saying that he had not seen the audit. ”There is no such thing as an internal investigation — the police are the only people who can do an investigation,” Ngculu said.