The Eastern Cape ANC, which has been on autopilot for weeks without a legitimate provincial leadership structure after its appointed provincial task team (PTT) was dissolved by the court, will remain in limbo until at least later this month.
The party’s leave to appeal application, which challenges a June 18 Makhanda high court judgment that nullified its interim provincial leadership structure, was initially set down on the motion court roll for Tuesday.
However, it was moved to July 31 at the eleventh hour.
In a court directive seen by the Dispatch, the Makhanda-based high court registrar confirmed the matter would be heard virtually by acting deputy judge president Vuyokazi Noncembu, who had delivered the judgment dissolving the structure in June.
The dissolution came less than a month after ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula unveiled the PTT, which took over after the term of office of the party’s provincial executive committee (PEC) lapsed in early May.
However, three disgruntled party members took the ANC to court, claiming proper processes were not followed when the PEC was replaced.
Noncembu declared the appointment unconstitutional and unlawful and set it aside.
She also declared all decisions taken by the PTT in its month of existence as unlawful, invalid and of no force or effect.
This judgment has rendered the ANC without a provincial leadership structure just a few months before the local government elections.
In its notice of application for leave to appeal against the judgment, Mbalula and the provincial ANC’s legal representatives, Ntanga Nkuhlu Incorporated, said their appeal was based on six grounds.
They argued that Noncembu had “failed to perform the duty of proper consideration”, that she incorrectly interpreted the party’s constitution, that her finding that the end of the PEC’s term by effluxion of time was not a lawful basis for its dissolution was misdirected, and that there was misdirection in her granting final relief styled as interim relief.
In the court papers, the national ANC has been listed as the first respondent, Mbalula second, the provincial ANC as third and former ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi as fourth respondent, while the 44 individuals appointed in the PTT were listed as fifth to 44th respondents.
“Her ladyship erred in law by not giving the first and second respondents fair hearing in that its material averments were ignored and the matter decided on deficiencies in the fifth to 44th respondents’ version.
“Her ladyship erred in law by not addressing the averment that the constitution and make-up of the PTT is substantively the same as the PEC.
“Her ladyship erred in law by granting review relief where no record of the decision was placed before the court,” the court paper states.
The party further argued that Noncembu “erred in law in finding that the NEC’s power requires consultation before it can be exercised in the context where a PEC’s term has expired by effluxion of time and the provincial conference at which a new PEC was to be elected has been interdicted”.
“Her ladyship erred in law by finding that the ANC’s rule 12.2.4 favours a democratically elected PEC with an expired term of office over an appointed PTT, because this finding ignores the fact that the rule gives the NEC the powers to ensure the democratic or effective functioning conjunctively and not disjunctively.
“Her ladyship also erred in fact in finding that the PTT was arbitrarily appointed,” the party partly argued.
It submitted that another court would reach a different conclusion to Noncembu’s judgment, indicating it was willing to go to the Supreme Court of Appeal to prove its case.
Mbalula and the attorney representing the three disgruntled ANC members who had successfully applied for the PTT to be nullified, Sinawo Makhangela, could not be reached for comment by the time of publication.
Daily Dispatch
