Spokesperson for the applicants, Monnapula Ntamo, tells OFM News they are confident they will emerge victorious when Judge Fouche Jordaan delivers his judgment on the matter. 

The members - Matshepo Ramakatsa, Lebeko Maile, Themba Mvandaba, and Shashapa Motaung – approached the court in November 2018 to challenge the legality of the provincial elective conference that took place in May that year.  Today the parties delivered their arguments in the High Court.

The disgruntled group, represented by Advocates Dali Mpofu and Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, allege the conference took place in the absence of legally elected delegates from branches and without proper audits of the branches being done within the nine month period specified in the party’s constitution. The applicants further argued that the former is in fact a violation of a November 2017 High Court order which determined that 28 Branch General Meetings (BGMs) in the province had to be rerun in a lawful manner per the ANC constitution, before the provincial elective conference could take place.

The ANC provincial and national leadership represented by Advocates William Mokhari and Ishmael Semenya, argued their clients were not in contravention of the November 2017 court order, because they did end up rerunning those BGMs as was instructed in that order. They used a December 15 High Court judgment to support their assertion. This judgment indicated that of the 28 BGMs that were rerun, only 14 were done so successfully. Mokhari maintained the applicants wanted Jordaan to take the November 2017 judgment into account and ignore the one that followed. He says “the December 2017 judgment supersedes the one the applicants refer to in their argument”.  

Prior to the provincial conference which took place in May 2018, five of the BGMs were rerun successfully, while nine were not. The respondents state that, at the time the questioned conference took place, at least 90% BGMs were rerun successfully, thus defeating the applicants’ argument. Mpofu, however, rejected this, stressing the party’s constitution was not enforced correctly. Mpofu says that the process was tainted and the matter must be approached holistically.
Regarding the audits that were allegedly not done within the nine-month period, Mokhari accused the opposition of “shifting the goal post” and arguing a different case entirely. He says this is because the applicants were put in a corner and faced with a situation where they must indicate where the violation was made. He said the application was misplaced and should therefore be dismissed. 

In response, Ngcukaitobi told Jordaan that the applicants had “taken their eyes off the nine month rule”, placing them back to where they started. He said the two respondents were even contradicting one another, with the ANC national leadership stating the audits were done in February 2018, while the provincial leadership stated they were not done at all. Ngcukaitobi said “accusing the applicants of arguing a different case is simply disingenuous”.  He says the nine month rule, in fact, applies to all the branches.

OFM News/Olebogeng Motse, Lucky Nkuyane and Sazly Hartzenberg