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ANC regional leaders in the Eastern Cape have urged the party’s newly unveiled provincial task team (PTT) to urgently prioritise reconvening the collapsed provincial elective conference.
Speaking in KuGompo City during the induction of the PTT on Thursday, ANC Chris Hani regional chair Lusanda Sizani urged the 40-member interim provincial leadership to ensure the conference was reconvened by June 15.
An attempt to hold the conference in late March was derailed at the last minute when three disgruntled party members obtained a court interdict which effectively prevented the gathering from proceeding.
ANC bosses filed a rescission application on Friday, asking the court to rescind and set aside the Eastern Cape High Court ruling.
On Thursday, Sizani had told a packed City Hall that if Eastern Cape and national ANC leaders failed to file papers for a rescission application by the end of last week, branches and regions in the province would do so themselves so the province could go to conference “not later than the 15th of June”.
Judge Babalo Metu interdicted the conference on March 26 after ANC members Lwazi Rotya, Sinethemba Mpande and Nompumelelo Mzothwa brought an urgent application to stop the gathering from proceeding.
They alleged widespread irregularities, unlawfulness and unresolved internal disputes relating to branch meetings ahead of the conference.
Metu granted an interim order interdicting the ANC from holding its conference pending the determination of further relief sought in the application.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula filed the rescission application on Friday.
In the application, Mbalula argued the trio had obtained the interim order “on a false, incomplete, fraudulent and misleading factual foundation”.
“They did not approach this honourable court with clean hands.
“Instead, they invoked this court’s urgent jurisdiction to stop an electoral and organisational process on facts that were misstated, misconstrued, and, in material respects, untrue.”
Mbalula said the urgent application had been presented as a matter of exceptional urgency and grave unlawfulness.
“The notice of motion gave the ANC less than 24 hours to file an answering affidavit from its issuance, and the matter was set down for a hearing less than 24 hours thereafter.”
Mbalula claimed the “false representations” made by the applicants were “wilful and fraudulent”.
He argued that Rotya, the deponent to the founding affidavit, “has neither been an active member of Ward 24 in the Dr Rubusana region nor engaged in ANC affairs in the province for a considerable period preceding the application”.
“Yet, Mr Rotya falsely claims that the alleged facts he deposes to in the founding affidavit regarding the processes of Ward 24 and other branches of the ANC preceding the date of the conference are true and correct.
“The position of the second respondent, Sinethemba Mpande, is similar.
“That is so because he did not attend the relevant meetings which are claimed to have been irregular.
“I respectfully submit that Mr Mpande’s affidavit was filed to mislead the court by creating the artificial impression that the untrue allegations in the founding affidavit were supported by relevant confirmatory evidence, when they were not.”
The false, defamatory and scurrilous allegations made against me under oath before a court of law have done enormous harm to my reputation
Mbalula said the trio did not attend the ANC branch meetings they challenged, did not raise objections over the conduct or constitutionality of those meetings, failed to lodge disputes within the required 48-hour period and were not members in good standing in all the affected branches.
“They therefore had no personal knowledge of what transpired in those branches and lacked any authority to advance the many false allegations they did in relation to the branches,” he said.
Mbalula also said allegations that he had manipulated branch membership systems had harmed his standing and the ANC’s reputation.
“The false, defamatory and scurrilous allegations made against me under oath before a court of law have done enormous harm to my reputation and authority as the national secretary-general of the ANC, a member of the top five of the organisation’s national leadership, and a respected leader within the organisation, as well as to the reputation and legitimacy of the ANC.”
Lawyer Ngqiqo Sakhela confirmed on Monday that the ANC’s rescission application had been filed.
Sakhela said no court date had yet been allocated as case management processes were still under way.
While the ANC trio’s lawyer, Sinawo Makangela, could not be reached for comment, Rotya said they were preparing for the latest legal challenge.
He promised to provide more details later but had not done so by the time of publication.
Daily Dispatch
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