Disgruntled African National Congress (ANC) members in the North West are again heading to the North West High Court in Mahikeng to declare the recent party provincial conference unlawful. The ninth provincial conference was held in Rustenburg in August.
The members are questioning the legitimacy of the conference and insist there were irregularities and non-compliance with the party’s constitution. They first approached the court in August to challenge the outcome of the provincial conference. Their application was dismissed as the court found that the matter was not urgent.
Urgent application by aggrieved ANC members in North West struck off the roll 25 August 2022:
It was then enrolled for October. Aggrieved members have cited the ANC national executive committee and all five officials of the ANC in the North West as respondents.
The aggrieved members want the court to declare the decision of the provincial conference null and void. One of them, Pakiso Mqikela, says they are optimistic that, the court will rule in their favour.
“We believe that we had a case against the elective conference of the ANC that elected the current setting of the provincial executive committee and we are hoping that we will get out of this particular court having something positive in hand.”
ANC provincial chairperson, Nono Maloyi, equally believes they have a strong case.
“We are ready for that case like we were ready before. Our teams have completed their work and we will go to court and we will prove before the court of law that whatever is contained in their affidavit, is not necessarily the truth. But the advice we got from our legal team, is that we have a strong case, we don’t think they have a case.”
Political analyst from the North West University, Professor Andre Duvenhage, is of the opinion that, should the court rule in favour of the applicants, this will have an impact on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s camp.
“Anything can happen. My assessment is that it is highly possible that the status quo will be in place. The court case if successful, can have a huge impact on the political elite of the day and it will be negative for people like Nono Maloyi, Paul Mashatile, and the bigger Cyril Ramaphosa camp.”
Meanwhile, scores of ANC members from across the province are expected to converge in court to pledge their solidarity to the different parties.
