ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe on Monday asked that the party be given time to deal with the "war room" saga.
"Please allow us to deal with this matter. We take it very seriously. It’s a serious matter to us‚" Mantashe said at a media briefing called by the party, after its national executive committee lekgotla.
He said any details linked to the matter would be brought as evidence to disciplinary "processes".
Mantashe was responding to a question on reports that public relations practitioner Sihle Bolani said she shared a report detailing how the ANC "planned to spend R50m on a covert campaign targeting opposition parties in the 2016 local government elections" with Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe.
Bolani took the ANC to court last week‚ claiming that she was owed R2.2m for work done by her company during the campaign, to bolster the image of the party and disempower political rivals during the 2016 local government elections.
Mantashe also told journalists that former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe was not yet on the ANC list for Parliament.
Mantashe said half of the list of people nominated for Parliament came from provinces while the other half were nominated at a national level.
"This means that eight of the nine provinces will have a list of parliamentarians who are going to the National Assembly on the province-to-national list. That constitutes the list of the ANC, registered with the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC). You cannot amend that list before you finish 12 months."
Mantashe said if the list were amended in a particular month‚ it could not be changed for the next 12 months.
"If, for example, a particular province‚ which is the home of Brian Molefe‚ wants to include him there … there are only two opportunities for him to get into the list first before he goes to Parliament, because he is not in the Parliament list yet …. There is no Brian in the Parliament yet. But if his province wants to amend‚ it must wait for the anniversary of its national amendments.
"At that point it can reprioritise its list. If it prioritises Brian‚ then he will be the first to replace whoever gets out of Parliament when there is a vacancy. Or if its list is depleted … then you can replenish the depleted list with new names. That is another opportunity for Brian to be in that list. If in the province-to-national he gets in that list‚ he will be in line to go to Parliament and that point has not arrived yet‚" Mantashe said.
His response comes after the Sunday Times reported that the ANC in North West wanted to put Molefe on its parliamentary list so that he would ultimately become the new finance minister in a foreseen Cabinet reshuffle.
TMG Digital
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.