LEGAL action by disgruntled current and former members against the ANC in other provinces is intensifying following the South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, ruling setting aside the outcomes of the Ekurhuleni regional conference.
Judge Denise Fisher this week set aside all decisions, resolutions and election results of the chaotic conference held at the Indaba Hotel in Fourways north of Johannesburg in May last year and ordered the ANC to pay the costs of the eight disgruntled members who hauled the party to court.
Following the judgment handed down on Monday, ANC Gauteng spokesperson Lesego Makhubela would not say what its next course of action would be, but the party’s Ekurhuleni region has been left in limbo.
The region was also scheduled to hold its regional general council meeting to replace its former chairperson, Mzwandile Masina, and erstwhile regional secretary, Thembinkosi Nciza, who were respectively both elected at the subsequent ANC national and provincial conferences to the national executive committee and as Gauteng provincial secretary.
In terms of the ANC constitution, any member elected to a position in a higher structure shall resign from any position held in a lower structure.
ANC Ekurhuleni regional spokesperson Lesiba Mpya said their existence was now in the balance until the party decided to appeal the decision.
He said it was hard to talk on behalf of the party after Monday’s ruling as the court suspended the regional executive committee’s participation as representatives of the ANC in Ekurhuleni.
“What is clear is that the matter has been handled by the province in the ANC provincial executive committee. The ANC at the national level is also assisting in handling the matter,” he said.
Jabulani Sithole, one of the eight applicants who successfully brought the case against the Ekurhuleni regional conference, is a member of the Mzwakhe Ngomane ANC branch in ward 83 of the municipality.
In June last year, he was unsuccessful in his attempt to interdict the convening of the ANC Gauteng provincial conference at which Premier Panyaza Lesufi was elected chairperson.
At the time, Sithole argued that the provincial conference could not proceed without disputes from Ekurhuleni branches being resolved.
The ANC in the North West is also embroiled in a bitter court battle over the outcomes of its provincial conference held in Rustenburg in August last year.
Another group of disgruntled ANC members - Lebogang Medupe, Lesego Serapelwane, Puso Moeng, Sello Molefe and Itumeleng Moswane - has applied for leave to appeal North West High Court Deputy Judge President Tebogo Djaje’s May 23 ruling dismissing their bid to challenge the outcomes of the provincial conference.
They also claim the top five leaders – provincial chairperson Nono Maloyi, deputy chairperson Lazzy Mokgosi, secretary Louis Diremelo, deputy secretary Viola Motsumi and treasurer Sello Lehari – were ineligible to be elected.
The application for leave to appeal is set down for next month.
In the Free State, the seven former ANC Mangaung councillors who were expelled from the party after voting for voting with the opposition to get DA councillor Maryke Davies elected as speaker have been granted leave to appeal their axing in the Free State High Court.
Chabeli Rampai, Mpho Mokoakoa, Lehlohonolo Moqolo, Makoa Lelala, Puseletso Seleke, Mapaseka Mothibi-Nkoane and Patrick Monyakoana are challenging Judge Pitso Molitsoane’s ruling interdicting and restraining them from acting as Mangaung councillors, performing associated functions and attending council meetings.
They also intend to review the ANC’s decision to expel them as members as they believe their expulsions were unreasonable or irrational.
In his ruling, Judge Molitsoane on June 28 found that he could not ignore the compelling argument by the group of expelled former councillors that in spite of their expulsion they continued to serve as ANC councillors for about 10 months between April 2022 and April this year.
”The respondents (expelled former councillors) argue that the applicant (ANC) must have also viewed the expulsion on this basis as null and void,” reads the judgment.
Rampai, Mokoakoa, Moqolo and Lelala this week stood as independent candidates in four wards but lost all of them to the ANC.