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The ANC Veterans League in Nelson Mandela Bay has raised fresh doubt about Andile Lungisa’s shortlisting for the party’s mayoral candidate in the metro.
The league is demanding answers from the candidate selection panel over why it interviewed Lungisa despite ANC rules specifically barring members with criminal convictions from being nominated.
Veterans League regional chair Mzukisi Mpahlwa insisted the league was not objecting to Lungisa’s nomination but simply sought clarity on whether the interview panel was aware of the national executive committee member and former Bay councillor’s previous conviction and criminal record.
Lungisa was interviewed by the ANC’s top seven and the party’s electoral commission on Monday last week as one of the party’s shortlisted mayoral candidates.
But citing rule 2.5 of the ANC’s nomination guidelines, which states that members with criminal convictions cannot be nominated, Mpahlwa said the question was simple.
“The Veterans League is asking a question of clarity,” Mpahlwa said.
“The question is whether the panel interviewing Andile Lungisa was aware of the public knowledge of his conviction.
“In interviewing him, were you aware that comrade Lungisa was convicted and sentenced for a criminal offence?
“We’re asking this against the backdrop of rule 2.5 that says anyone with a criminal record cannot be nominated.
“The subsequent question is now that you’ve interviewed him and are now aware, what are you going to do?”
Mpahlwa said the league would take the next step once the panel responded.
On April 17 2018, Lungisa was convicted in the magistrate’s court in Gqeberha of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
He was sentenced to three years in prison, with one year suspended, following a 2016 incident in which he struck DA councillor Rayno Kayser with a glass jug during a council meeting.
After a series of appeals, his conviction was ultimately upheld and he began serving his sentence in September 2020 before being released early on parole in December.
Lungisa said his parole ended a month after his release.
However, this could not be verified.
Mpahlwa said it remained a problem that those who did not qualify according to the ANC’s own guidelines continued to be nominated.
“As the Veterans League, alongside the ANC, we ran a number of workshops on guidelines for all members of the ANC,” Mpahlwa said.
“We went even further and ran a workshop titled Frequently Asked Questions so that everyone was absolutely clear on who qualified and who did not.
“Either the members never read the guidelines or simply flouted them because one of the requirements to become a councillor is that you need to have a matric.
“You find when people nominate comrades they don’t ask them if they’ve got a matric.
“We’ve got a number of those cases where people who don’t qualify are nominated.
“The guidelines even talk about if you’ve got a case to answer for in court you don’t qualify.
“If you’ve been found guilty by the disciplinary committee you don’t quality.
“It’s not just comrade Lungisa but we’ve got a number of those cases.”
The league had also submitted its own preferred mayoral candidate — its regional treasurer Dr Siva Pillay.
However, Pillay was not interviewed because he served on the provincial list committee in the Eastern Cape.
Mpahlwa said the league accepted this decision because it was a conflict of interest.
“We’re not making a fuss because we’re a rules-based organisation.
“We must accept the rules even if the outcome isn’t favourable to us.”
On Tuesday, Lungisa dismissed the intervention, saying the issue had been closed a long time ago.
“The structure they’ve written to will respond to the veterans,” Lungisa said.
“The issue they’re raising was closed a long time ago.
“Even Kayser and Lungisa are best friends.
“An apology was issued to Kayser a long time ago.
“The veterans must focus on the work and programmes of the ANC and not open up items that were concluded a long time ago.”
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