Further allegations of vote-buying at ANC National Conferences

Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma, said that the ANC’s 2017 Elective Conference was bought.

She shared this information during a discussion about the ANC’s 2017 Conference during a discussion with Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh on the SMWX podcast.

“The conference was definitely bought. We were robbed of our first female president because of the money exchanges at that specific conference,” Zuma-Sambudla said.

She was responding to previous allegations by the Presidential candidate, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, that ANC stalwart Fikile Mbalula was involved in vote-buying.

Dlamini-Zuma told Mbuyiseni Ndlozi on the African Renaissance Podcast that money was openly distributed at a clinic to buy votes at the 2022 ANC Conference.

She implicated Mbalula, whom she said bought votes to secure his selection as ANC Secretary General and Cyril Ramaphosa’s election as President.

“On the first morning of the 2022 ANC conference, half a billion rand was found in somebody’s room,” she said.

“Money has played a big role in the ANC. Mbalula was handing out money at the clinic. So, money has played a role in the ANC.”

“It was not a secret. Mbalula was dishing out money to be elected as the Secretary General and for the President to be elected.”

She added that, although it is criminal to buy votes at an ANC elective conference, everyone knew it was happening.

“Money was used. We all know. We all saw it. At the ANC’s 2022 National Conference, we all saw it,” Dlamini-Zuma said.

“If you ask anyone who worked at the clinic at the time, they’ll tell you. Even the media reported it. I’m not revealing a secret.”

She said that money plays a big role in the selection of ANC leaders. “That is what I can say,” she told Ndlozi.

Fikile Mbalula hit back

Mbalula hit back, denying the allegations in their entirety. “I did not distribute money to delegates at the facility referred to as the clinic or anywhere else,” he said.

“Nothing of the sort was done by me. I reject the allegation, and reject the proposition that the leadership of the ANC was procured with money I distributed.”

He said that he was elected as the ANC’s Secretary General at the 55th National Conference at NASREC in December 2022, freely and fairly.

“Where any member holds information about wrongdoing, the doors of the ANC are open to them, and the Integrity Commission exists for that purpose,” he said.

“The African National Congress reserves all its rights, and the rights of its Officials and National Executive, fully and without limitation.”

After consulting with his attorneys, Mbalula brought a defamation suit against Dlamini-Zuma in the Gauteng High Court.

He wants a public retraction and a formal apology from Dlamini-Zuma and an order prohibiting the continued distribution of the interview containing the statements.

Dlamini-Zuma refused to back down. She filed opposing affidavits refusing to apologise or retract her statements.

Her defence included an affidavit from a delegate claiming to have seen Mbalula distributing money to delegates at the 2022 conference.

In October 2026, the Gauteng High Court ruled that there was a material dispute of fact based on the conflicting written affidavits.

The court ordered that the case proceed to oral evidence, which means that Mbalula, Dlamini-Zuma, and key witnesses will have to take the stand.