CAPE TOWN, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Thursday rejected claims that it had planned to sell drugs to fund its election campaign almost two decades ago.
The ANC "rejects with contempt the spurious and preposterous claims", ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said in a statement.
More disgracing of these spurious claims is the mention of late president Nelson Mandela, Kodwa said.
"We would like to state categorically that the ANC's main source of funding, for its day to day work and of any campaigns, has been and will always be from its membership fees and from donors.
"We believe these false claims are, therefore, orchestrated to damage the good name of the late President Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress," said Kodwa.
Kodwa accused News24, a local news outlet, of publishing the story on Wednesday, without seeking a comment from the ANC.
"It is regrettable and unfortunate," Kodwa said.
The claims were revealed in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.
This allegation was contained in a statement made by a former member of an elite investigative unit set up in the late 1990s by then president Mandela.
The unnamed member said another ex-member of the unit, Abraham Smith, had made the claims.
Smith allegedly claimed that the ANC, which was in financial difficulty, planned to sell drugs to fund its election campaign in 1999.
The member who made the statement said she understood this to mean that the informant was going to sell drugs "to get finances for the ANC".
Her statement was read out in court on Wednesday in a civil trial brought on by Major-General Andre Lincoln, who was appointed by Mandela in 1996 to head up a special presidential investigative task unit.
Lincoln was later arrested when criminal allegations against him and others in the presidential investigative unit then surfaced.
Lincoln is now claiming 15 million rand (about one million US dollars) in damages from then Minister of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi for alleged malicious prosecution.
