An urgent court application to declare the 9th ANC North West provincial conference unlawful has been lodged in the Mahikeng high court.
The notice was filed on Saturday by five ANC members from the province who want the high court to declare the notice calling for the ANC’s provincial conference of the North West held a week ago to be declared unlawful and invalid.
It will be heard on Thursday ahead of the continuation of the provincial conference this weekend.
The application was submitted by Zisiwe Attorneys following a press briefing the day before by the newly elected top five in the province where provincial chair Nono Maloyi outlined plans for the election of additional provincial executive committee members.
On August 15, the more than 1,000 delegates elected Maloyi as chairperson along with the rest of his top five.
At the core of the court application is an argument by ANC member Lebogang Medupe that the interim provincial committee had no mandate to organise the conference as its mandate expired in June 2020.
Prior to the conference, the ANC in the province was led by an interim structure since its executive committee, led by former chairperson Supra Mahumapelo, was disbanded in 2018.
“The IPC (Interim Provincial Committee) did not have the powers or authority to call for the 9th provincial conference in terms of the provisions of rule 17.1 of the ANC Constitution read together with rule 10.2 of the guidelines by virtue of their term of office having lapsed with effect from the 1 June 2020,” the affidavit read.
Another bone of contention for the litigants was the participation of the IPC members, whereas an earlier court judgement has bared them from participating in the conference.
Following that previous judgment, ANC acting secretary-general Paul Mashatile issued a statement saying the members of the IPC would be granted observer status.
This, the litigants said, was not an ANC national executive committee decision but rather a recommendation made by the treasurer-general.
“The NEC of the ANC did not convene any meeting as such to resolve on the issues communicated by Cde Mashatile on behalf of the SGO (secretary-general’s office).
“Cde Mashatile’s statement issued on 13 August 2022 is no resolution by the NEC, but merely a statement he issued on behalf of the SGO.”
The applicants likened Mashatile’s conduct at the provincial conference as a “coup”.
“I must emphasise that what is currently happening at the 9th provincial conference of the North West is nothing other than a hostile takeover by the SGO, Cde Mashatile, and his NEC deployees, who were mandated to come and support and observe the 9th provincial conference. The conduct of Cde Mashatile and his NEC deployees [is] tantamount to a coup of the 9th provincial conference of the North West.”
The North West provincial conference is set to continue this weekend to elect the rest of the additional provincial executive committee members, where ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to officially close the conference.
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