Tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu believes her failed ANC presidential bid was engineered by underhanded means.

This is contained in a leaked dispute declaration letter Sisulu sent to ANC electoral committee chairperson Kgalema Motlanthe.

Sisulu failed to make the ballot for the presidential contest at the ANC national elective conference to be held at Nasrec from December 16 to 20.

According to Sisulu, she should have made the cut because “our own filed nominations in my name met and exceeded the 25% threshold of support”.

“My team therefore request to know what happened to those nominations or maybe your committee can provide us with raw data because we can help your committee and produce them for your benefit as and when such information is required from our side,” Sisulu wrote.

She alleged she had foreseen some branch nominations for her would “be lost in the pipeline”.

She claimed the electoral committee was a “biased referee” that promoted President Cyril Ramaphosa and former health minister Zweli Mkhize at the expense of branches that nominated her.

“It is incongruous for the electoral committee to discount or disregard branch nominations in the manner you have done in our case.

“We stand ready, willing and able to provide you with records supporting our argument that we have met and exceeded the threshold,” she wrote.

Sisulu is apparently planning to go to court if the electoral committee does not accept her nomination.

She claims the leaking of her complaint is “regrettable”.

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