Gugu Mbonambi
WHO offered R2 000 bribes to ANC Youth League members from KwaZulu-Natal not to vote for the league’s newly elected leadership – and who were the bribes offered to?
These questions remain unanswered after league president Julius Malema told delegates yesterday that KwaZulu-Natal delegates had been offered R2 000 to vote for specific candidates.
Malema retained his position after elections during the league’s four-day conference in Midrand on Friday.
Speaking yesterday, he lambasted those within the ANC who he said used the youth league in factional struggles.
He said there had been people trying to buy youth-league votes in Mpumalanga and KZN, but they had not succeeded.
“The youth are not empty buckets to be filled with empty lies. We want to be taught proper politics, not the policy of factionalism. You want us to respect you when you plot (against) kids,” Malema said.
Youth league provincial chairman Mthandeni Dlungwane said yesterday that several “faceless” delegates from KZN had reported that they had been offered R2 000 each to vote for certain people. He said the incidents happened on Thursday.
“People went to our delegates, saying they would be given R2 000 if they voted for certain individuals from a list that had the names of Lebogang Maile (Gauteng ANCYL leader) and Wandile Mkhize from the lower South Coast,” he said.
Difficult
Dlungwane would not be drawn on who had offered the bribes and who had reported the claims. He could not provide names because various people from around KZN had reported the matter and that delegates had come from all over the country, so it was difficult for him to identify “specific individuals”.
“I did not send them to offer bribes so I do not know who they are. All I am saying is that certain individuals wanted our delegates to vote for a different leadership,” he said.
KZN youth league deputy secretary Sboniso Duma said those who had offered the bribes had gained access to the league’s database and captured members’ contact numbers.
They had phoned members, promising them money if they voted in a certain way and claiming to be “a silent majority”. He said others had been promised jobs and cars.
SMSes were also sent out telling delegates how to vote and forwarding lists with the names of Maile, who was expected to contest the league’s leadership, as well as Eastern Cape chairman Ayanda Matiti, who was nominated at the conference to contest the position of youth league secretary-general.
Duma said this was first picked up on Thursday, the first day of the conference, when 10 delegates from different regions approached their regional leaders with the SMSes. The league suspected that the “self-appointed chief campaigners of others”, who were mainly from KZN and Gauteng, were behind the SMSes. “
They appear and reappear before conferences,” said Duma. The league would investigate the matter and, if the suspects were found to be league members, they would be charged, he said.