ANC Limpopo backs Mbalula amid vote-buying court battle
GIYANI: ANC Limpopo provincial secretary Reuben Madadzhe says the province remains firmly behind party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula amid his ongoing legal battle with former African Union chairperson and ANC NEC member Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Mbalula was in Giyani on Sunday for the ANC’s Giyani Sub-Regional Local Government Elections Manifesto launch rally at Mageve Village.
Madadzhe said the provincial leadership stood behind Mbalula as he fights allegations made by Dlamini-Zuma that he used money to influence delegates and secure his election as ANC secretary-general at the party’s 2022 national elective conference at Nasrec.
“We fully support the secretary-general,” Madadzhe said.
The allegations have now spilled into the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, where Mbalula has instituted a defamation case against Dlamini-Zuma.
Dlamini-Zuma has maintained that Mbalula distributed money to delegates during the 2022 conference to influence the outcome of the leadership contest. In her court papers, she alleged that money was used to secure the election of Mbalula as secretary-general and the re-election of Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC president.
She has also relied on an affidavit from ANC delegate Mandla Themba Sibiya, who claims he witnessed Mbalula distributing money to delegates and that he personally benefited from the alleged payments.
Mbalula has denied the allegations in their entirety, saying he did not distribute money to delegates to secure his election or influence the election of any other ANC leader.
His legal team argued that Dlamini-Zuma had failed to provide sufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations and challenged the reliability of Sibiya’s affidavit.
Dlamini-Zuma’s legal team, however, argued that the affidavit raised a genuine dispute of fact which could only properly be tested through oral evidence and cross-examination.
Following the hearing on 15 September, the Gauteng High Court reserved judgment in the defamation matter. No finding has therefore been made by the court on the truth of the vote-buying allegations.
The legal battle comes as the ANC intensifies its campaign for the 4 November 2026 Local Government Elections.
