ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has returned to work after collapsing following the Constitutional Court ruling that reinstated 181 excluded ANC candidates. He has declared himself fit and ready to campaign ahead of the November 4 local government elections.
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Speaking to the media at Luthuli House in Johannesburg on Sunday, Mbalula said he had rested after ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa ordered him to bed following his collapse at Constitution Hill last Thursday.
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“The President of the African National Congress, who is after all the boss, ordered me to bed. That order expired at six o’clock this morning. I have served my sentence, and I am back at my desk,” he said.
He said doctors had examined him and confirmed he was fit to resume his duties, and thanked his family, colleagues and members of the public for their messages of support. “The doctors have examined me thoroughly and I am fit as a fiddle. I have rested. Now the ground is calling my name,” he said.
Seven weeks of pressure
Mbalula said the legal battle over the excluded candidates had weighed heavily on him for seven weeks, because he feared voters in six municipalities would not be able to vote for the ANC candidates they had chosen.
“The thought that people in six municipalities might be handed a ballot paper that did not carry the party they had chosen, that thought sat on my chest every night,” he said. When the court ruled, he said, “the weight came off all at once, and the body did what the body does.”
He acknowledged that the incident had raised concerns about his wellbeing. “I am a human being. All of us have a limit, and there is no shame in finding yours,” he said.
The collapse happened on Thursday, when Mbalula became emotional while addressing journalists at Constitution Hill after the ruling.
Candidates reinstated
The Constitutional Court set aside the Electoral Court’s decision and directed the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to put the 181 candidates on the November 4 ballot papers.
The dispute began after the ANC failed to complete the final step of its online candidate nomination process before the August 28 deadline. The party said it had submitted names, supporting documents and deposits, but that an incomplete step on the commission’s system led to the exclusions.
“A button inside a computer program is not the law. It appears in no Act, no regulation, no Government Gazette. A right our people bled for cannot be taken away by a screen design,” Mbalula said.
The ruling affects Ngquza Hill, Port St Johns, Walter Sisulu and Sundays River Valley in the Eastern Cape, uMshwathi in KwaZulu-Natal and Mangaung in the Free State. Mbalula said ballot papers in those municipalities are being reprinted, and that 34 other parties in the same position were also included.
He praised the IEC for implementing the order and urged South Africans to protect the commission as a cornerstone of democracy.
Back on the campaign trail
Mbalula apologised to voters in the six municipalities for the uncertainty. “You did nothing wrong, and yet you were the ones left wondering whether your choice would appear on your ballot paper. For that, this movement is sorry, and I am sorry,” he said.
With 17 days to go before the elections, he said the party’s focus now shifts to campaigning. “The courtroom is behind us. The campaign is in front of us. I am back, I am well, and from today you will find me where I belong, which is on the ground, with our people,” he said.
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