The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will investigate allegations that uMkhonto weSizwe Party submitted fraudulent signatures required from any political party to register. This comes after a weekend report that the newly formed party of former President Jacob Zuma forged 15,000 signatures.
FRAUDULENT SIGNATURES?
City Press reported yesterday that a former official at the party ,Lennox Ntsodo, opened a case with the police in the Western Cape last week where he alleges, in a statement, that he appointed a team to help with forgery of signatures after IEC rejected the party's first application for registration. According to the statement made by Ntsodo, the team allegedly fraudulently obtained names, ID numbers and cellphone numbers of jobseekers from a database of the Cape Metro Council. After the report, IEC confirmed in a statement earlier today that a criminal complaint has been laid with the SAPS. "The commission calls on the crime investigation authorities to expedite the investigations to establish the verity of the allegations made. An expeditious investigation is essential for the conduct of free and fair elections," IEC said in a statement. IEC further said that the signature portal of the candidate nomination system verified whether the identity numbers submitted were of registered citizens of SA. "In other words, this entailed establishing whether the person is a citizen, alive and registered on the voters' roll. The commission had indicated in the parliamentary process during debates on the institutionalisation of the signature requirement that it would be impossible to establish whether the signatures proffered were indeed of those persons who purport to have given them,"
EXPELLED CO-FOUNDER TO TAKE LEGAL ACTION
ZiMoja understands that the fired co-founder of the MK Party Jabulani Khumalo, who was expelled from the party on Friday alongside four other members is considering taking legal action against the party. Other four members expelled are Ray Khumalo, Bheki Manzini, Lebo Moepeng and Rochelle Davidson who were expelled after being accused of being 'rogue' elements within the organisation. Spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndlela, said the decision was made at a meeting held by the national leadership. "This is in light of the attempts by external forces to destabilise the MK Party, whose aim is to advance a revolution of the people," Ndlela said in a statement over the weekend. Cracks in the relationship between Khumalo and his former party started showing when the party took away three bodyguards from him leaving him with one. He was further accused of raising funds for the party, but the money never reached the organisation.
