EDITORIAL NOTE: This story has been changed. Ace Magashule is going to the High Court in Johannesburg and not the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein as indicated in the earlier story.
Suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule will be back in the High Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning to seek leave to appeal its decision to uphold his suspension from the ANC.
Magashule also wants the court to uphold his suspension of Cyril Ramaphosa as party president.
The High Court ruled that the ANC was within its right to suspend Magashule after he failed to comply with its step-aside rule which stipulates that criminally charged members must vacate their position until their matters are finalised.
Magashule believes a higher court will come to a different conclusion.
In the video below, Judge Jody Kollapen hands down judgment:
Internal party issues
Last month, Legal expert Sanusha Naidoo said the dismissal of Magashule’s case by the High Court in Johannesburg is a lesson that internal party issues should not involve courts.
Naidoo said the judiciary gets nervous around political cases.
“There is a political connotation to these things. The fact of the matter is the pronouncement that was made around checking to see whether rule 25.70 was legal was justified. It had political connotations. You can’t ignore it and I think that when you start using the courts to fight these political battles then, of course, the court gets nervous and I think in this case the court realised that in the context of what was happening, I mean the entire application has been dismissed.”
VIDEO: In conversation with Magashule following the dismissal of his suspension case:
Additional reporting by Ditaba Tsotetsi.
