JOHANNESBURG, Saturday 5 September 2026 — Former cabinet minister and ANC National Executive Committee member Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has filed an opposing affidavit in the court case brought against her by ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, moving their dispute over alleged vote-buying at ANC elective conferences into a substantive phase before the Johannesburg High Court.
SABC News reported on Saturday that Dlamini-Zuma had filed the affidavit in opposition to Mbalula’s application. The development goes beyond the notice of intention to oppose lodged by her lawyers on 25 August and means she has now formally placed her response to his case before the court.
The litigation follows remarks Dlamini-Zuma made during an appearance on the African Renaissance Podcast, where she discussed the role of money in ANC internal leadership contests and made specific allegations involving Mbalula.
Among her claims was that Mbalula distributed money during the ANC’s 55th National Conference at Nasrec in December 2022.
Mbalula was elected ANC secretary-general at that conference, while Cyril Ramaphosa secured a second term as party president.
Mbalula has denied Dlamini-Zuma’s allegations, describing them as false and defamatory. He subsequently instituted court proceedings seeking legal relief over the remarks.
The allegations have not been tested or established by a court.
Dlamini-Zuma previously said she would not retract her allegations concerning Mbalula and intended to defend them through the legal process.
“I stand by my statements and the substance of the argument raised,” she said in a statement last month, while indicating that she would no longer argue the merits publicly because the dispute was before the courts.
Her position distinguishes the Mbalula dispute from a separate controversy involving International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola.
Dlamini-Zuma had initially attributed an audio recording discussed during the podcast to Lamola. After Lamola denied that the voice was his and demanded a retraction, she withdrew that attribution.
She did not similarly retract the allegations against Mbalula.
Dlamini-Zuma has framed the broader dispute as part of what she says is a longstanding problem involving the influence of money in ANC leadership elections.
She has argued that the party cannot achieve its stated programme of organisational renewal without confronting the use of money in internal contests.
Those broader comments are political claims and do not establish that Mbalula or any other individual bought votes.
Mbalula has maintained that his election at the 2022 conference resulted from a secret-ballot process administered by the ANC’s Electoral Committee and has rejected claims that he distributed money to secure either his position or other leadership outcomes.
The court fight comes at a politically sensitive time for both Mbalula and the ANC.
As secretary-general, Mbalula is the party’s most senior full-time organisational official and is overseeing its national campaign ahead of the 4 November local government elections.
The ANC is simultaneously dealing with disputes over candidate submissions after failing to formally complete some nominations before the Electoral Commission’s 28 August deadline.
Those election-administration problems are separate from Dlamini-Zuma’s litigation, but they have increased scrutiny of Mbalula’s organisational leadership during a critical phase of the campaign.
Dlamini-Zuma remains one of the ANC’s most senior political figures.
She served in successive cabinets after 1994, chaired the African Union Commission and contested the ANC presidency against Ramaphosa in 2017, losing by 179 votes.
Her comments about money in ANC elections initially arose while discussing that closely contested leadership race.
She subsequently extended her criticism to developments at the ANC’s 2022 conference and made the allegation against Mbalula that now forms part of their legal dispute.
The filing of the opposing affidavit does not determine whether Dlamini-Zuma’s allegations are true or whether Mbalula is entitled to the relief he seeks.
It means the court will now have competing versions formally before it as the litigation progresses.
The precise contents of Dlamini-Zuma’s new affidavit were not available in the publicly retrievable reporting reviewed by Mzansi Political Safari on Saturday night.
Any factual allegations, documents or witnesses contained in those papers will therefore require separate examination before they can be treated as established evidence in the dispute.
The next significant development will be the filing of further papers, the allocation of a hearing date or the public release of Dlamini-Zuma’s affidavit and any supporting material.
The case could consequently place questions about money in ANC leadership contests before a court at the same time the party is asking voters to renew its mandate in municipalities across the country.
