Just hours after national ANC bosses reinstated the party’s “erstwhile” provincial executive committee (PEC) in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday morning, fresh legal threats emerged, with a party member demanding that the decision be reversed or face urgent court action.
The move was intended to end a prolonged leadership vacuum in the province, but the reinstatement of the PEC — whose four-year term expired in early May — has now opened another legal front for the troubled party.
The ANC has been without a properly constituted provincial leadership structure for the past two months after its interim provincial task team (PTT) was dissolved by the high court on June 18.
On Wednesday, the party’s national executive committee opted to reinstate the former PEC, with secretary-general Fikile Mbalula communicating the decision to provincial leaders.
However, just hours after the decision, a legal letter was sent to Luthuli House warning that the reinstatement was flawed and should be reversed.
In correspondence to Mbalula dated August 19 and seen by the Dispatch, Butterworth-based attorney BN Jikwana, acting on behalf of ANC member Luntu Sokutu, said they were concerned about the decision to reinstate the PEC despite its four-year term having lapsed three months ago.
Sokutu is a long-time supporter of provincial chair Oscar Mabuyane. He has previously tried and failed to contest for the position of provincial chair of the ANC Youth League.
“On August 18, your office issued a circular convening a consultative meeting for August 19 with the ‘members of the erstwhile’ PEC,” Jikwana wrote.
“The meeting was convened to consider the 2026 local government elections candidate selection process and other provincial matters.
“At the meeting of August 19, the existing PEC, whose term expired on May 8, was recognised and treated as the legitimate leadership structure of the ANC in the Eastern Cape.
“The PEC was not lawfully re-elected at a properly constituted provincial conference. Critically, the previous or current PEC was never formally dissolved in accordance with the ANC constitution.
“The recognition of the PEC by your office is therefore based on a circular that describes them as ‘erstwhile’, meaning former, yet purports to treat them as the legitimate leadership.”
He charged that the meeting Mbalula hosted on Wednesday morning with provincial leaders, where he announced the reinstatement of the PEC, was unlawful and unconstitutional because the structure had not been elected at a “properly constituted” provincial conference.
Jikwana told Mbalula that party principles “does not vest the expired PEC with legitimacy to continue indefinitely”, saying the structure was “merely a placeholder to avoid a vacuum”.
“Recognising and treating the expired PEC as the legitimate leadership structure, without a lawful provincial conference or lawful dissolution, is a transparent attempt to circumvent the constitutional processes and perpetuates the leadership vacuum.”
Jikwana said Mbalula’s reference to the PEC as “erstwhile” in the meeting invitation “confirms that the PEC is no longer the legitimate leadership structure”.
“Yet your office now purports to recognise them as the legitimate leadership.
“This is contradictory and legally untenable,” Jikwana said.
He said the ANC in the province needed a “legitimate, constitutionally compliant leadership structure” to oversee the candidate selection process, co-ordinate the election campaign and ensure the party’s effective participation in the elections.
“The current state of affairs, where an expired PEC is unlawfully recognised and treated as the legitimate leadership without constitutional authority, exposes the party to further legal challenges and reputational harm at a critical time, let alone the decline of member confidence and morale,” Jikwana said.
He demanded, on behalf of his client, that the party immediately issue a directive revoking any recognition of the PEC as the legitimate leadership structure of the ANC in the province.
Sokutu’s attorneys gave Mbalula seven days to reverse the decision or face urgent legal proceedings.
The aggrieved party member said a lawful interim leadership structure should instead be appointed pending the election of new provincial leaders at a properly constituted elective conference.
“The leadership crisis in the Eastern Cape has persisted for too long, but the solution lies not in unlawful shortcuts but in strict compliance with the ANC constitution and the rule of law.
“The courts have made it abundantly clear that the ANC cannot simply ignore its own constitution or the rights of its members,” Jikwana said.
He said the recognition of an expired PEC, described by Mbalula’s office as “erstwhile”, was “a flagrant violation of the ANC constitution and the court orders that have been handed down”.
The party has faced a number of legal challenges this year from disgruntled members, including those who successfully interdicted the provincial conference in March and later convinced the court to dissolve the interim task team leadership structure announced by the party in May.
Sokutu on Thursday morning confirmed that he had approached lawyers to challenge the PEC’s reinstatement.
This is a developing story.
Daily Dispatch
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