ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini will know her fate as a member of the party’s leadership this week after her perjury conviction.
The ANC’s top six officials met on Monday to discuss whether Dlamini should step aside in line with the party’s 54th conference resolution. It calls for all leaders implicated in serious crimes to step aside pending resolution of their cases.
Her case is a test for the ANC’s resolve to continue on its path of renewal and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s promise to clean up the party’s image.
Should Dlamini step aside voluntarily or be removed by the party’s leadership, it may hamper her chances of being re-elected as the league’s president at its elective conference this year. The league is a key voting bloc at the party’s elective national conference due at the end of the year.
The step-aside rule was adopted by the party as part of its renewal strategy after corruption scandals involving some of its most prominent senior members, which tainted the party’s image and led to significant losses in voter support.
When enforced, the rule will limit a party member’s participation in ANC activities, such as rallies and meetings. But the rule does not prevent branches from nominating and electing their preferred candidates.
In his closing address at last week’s Mpumalanga provincial conference at which double murder accused Mandla Msibi was elected treasurer, Ramaphosa urged party members to reflect on the conference resolution and to adhere to decisions taken by the national leadership.
Msibi has since stepped aside.
Former social development minister Dlamini’s supporters insist that the step-aside resolution, which requires ANC members charged with corruption or serious crimes to voluntarily vacate their leadership positions pending the outcome of criminal proceedings, does not apply in her case and she should not be removed from her position.
The women’s league president is a key ally of suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and former president Jacob Zuma.
“She [Dlamini] can’t be made to resign [in line with the step-aside rule] because she was given the option of a fine,” said a party national executive committee member sympathetic to Dlamini.
“We are going to push for a review of the step-aside rule because there is a gap in the guidelines,” said the NEC member, who declined to be named.
Another NEC member, who also declined to be named, said such a review was unlikely before the party’s elective conference in December because “step aside is a conference resolution and can, therefore, only be amended by conference”.
Unlike Msibi and suspended Limpopo ANC treasurer Danny Msiza — who has been charged with fraud, racketeering, corruption and money laundering related to his alleged involvement in looting at VBS Mutual Bank — Dlamini’s supporters say her crime is not serious and she has not been jailed.
Dlamini was sentenced in the Johannesburg magistrate’s court last week to a fine of R200,000 or four years in jail, half of which were suspended. This was for lying under oath during a 2017 inquiry into the social grants debacle at the SA Social Security Agency. She avoided going to jail by paying R20,000 of the fine on the day she was sentenced.
Though Msibi and Msiza have stepped aside, they still wield significant influence in their provinces. Msiza is tipped to seek the position of provincial secretary at Limpopo’s elective conference in June.
Dlamini did not respond to phone calls or texts requesting comment.
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