Winnie mum on being 'delisted'

2004-03-03 18:11

Cape Town - Former African National Congress MP and Women's League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is keeping mum about why she is not on the ANC's election list, and has referred queries to the party.

Madikizela-Mandela's spokesperson Alan van Zuydam-Reynolds said on Wednesday she had received a "substantial number" of enquiries from the media in the past week relating to her absence from the ANC's election list and seeking information relating to the matter.

Madikizela-Mandela wanted it to be noted she had been formally nominated to the ANC list by eight of the nine provinces, and she had "issued no instruction that her name should be removed from the list", he said.

"All enquiries as to why she does not appear on the final list should be directed to the appropriate official spokespersons in the ANC, and not to her office.

"At this point, all requests from branches and provinces for her to be deployed to their areas during the election campaign are being referred to ANC head office," said Van Zuydam-Reynolds.

Winnie 'still active' in politics

However, ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama was also not available for comment.

Last week, another ANC spokesperson, Steyn Speed, said neither Madikizela-Mandela's criminal conviction, nor her resignation from parliament precluded her from being on the list.

He could not say, though, why she was not listed.

On Wednesday, Speed undertook to look into the matter.

Madikizela-Mandela resigned as a member of parliament, women's league president and a member of the ANC's national executive committee in May last year after her conviction on 68 counts of fraud and theft charges the previous month.

She was sentenced to five years in jail, of which eight months had to be served in prison and the rest as community service. An appeal against her conviction is pending.

She had also faced a public reprimand from national assembly speaker Frene Ginwala for failing to disclose about R55 000 a month in donations, and a financial interest in the Winnie Mandela Family Museum in Soweto, but this never happened because she left parliament.

At the time of her resignation from parliament, she dismissed suggestions that this had ended her time in politics.

"She is definitely not removed from politics," said her spokesperson.

"She remains committed to active politics, serving her people in South Africa."

- SAPA