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ANC Leadership Race: Cliffhanger as Free State branch delegate judgment due on Friday

ANC Leadership Race: Cliffhanger as Free State branch delegate judgment due on Friday

The Bloemfontein High Court will deliver its judgment on Friday on whether some ANC branch delegates from the Free State will be barred from attending the party’s national elective conference. The results of the ANC presidential election could be at stake. By GREG NICOLSON.

So many ANC issues have been resolved in court in 2017 that there’s a joke going around suggesting the party needs its own dedicated courts. As contestation for leadership positions has intensified, the ANC’s provincial structures have been dragged to court repeatedly to resolve leadership disputes brought by aggrieved factions.

All signs indicate that the party’s national elective conference will go ahead this weekend, but another case heard in Bloemfontein on Thursday could open the door for a legal challenge contesting the result of the elections, where Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and former African Union chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma are the front runners in the race to be president.

Two weeks ago, the court said 29 Free State branch general meetings (BGMs) were not held in accordance with the ANC constitution and the province was ordered to hold them again. ANC members nominate leaders at BGMs to contest the national elections and choose delegates to attend the national conference.

ANC Free State spokesperson Thabo Meeko this week said the party had tried to overcome what was “humanely impossible” and had rerun 28 of the 29 BGMs. It proceeded to hold provincial party elections where chairperson Ace Magashule was re-elected. His former deputy and rival Thabo Manyoni boycotted the event.

Representing the aggrieved members, Advocate Dali Mpofu said the ANC had failed to comply with the earlier court judgment and rerun the BGMs in line with the Constitution. He called on the court to nullify the results of this week’s Free State provincial elective conference and to bar delegates from the branches in dispute from attending the national conference.

Advocate William Mokhari, representing the branches, argued that there was proof the branch meetings were held correctly and even if there were deviations Free State, delegates from untainted branches must still be allowed to attend the conference. Advocate Modise Khoza for the ANC called on the courts to dismiss the application and said the aggrieved members should have engaged the party rather than running to the courts.

The case could have far-reaching implications for the ANC elections, due to begin over the weekend in Johannesburg. Mpofu pointed out that allowing delegates from Free State branches in dispute to attend would put the whole ANC conference under a cloud and potentially open the door to court challenges contesting the results.

The aggrieved ANC members don’t want all Free State delegates barred from attending the conference, but they don’t want “bogus” delegates to attend, as Mpofu phrased it.

Those who brought the matter to court are aligned with Manyoni’s faction. Manyoni has publicly backed Ramaphosa while Magashule supports Dlamini Zuma and has been nominated to be elected as secretary-general. The aggrieved ANC members believe delegates from branches which did not hold lawful BGMs could prop up support for Dlamini Zuma.

The ANC goes through a rigorous process of electing delegates to attend conferences and checking their credentials. If the contest between leaders is close and the results marginal, the losing side will consider whether to go to court.

If delegates from the Free State branches in dispute are able to attend the conference it could provide ammunition for the results to be contested in court, where aggrieved parties would seek the outcomes of the conference to be nullified. That would probably mean the ANC would have to rerun its national conference.

With only hours to go before the ANC conference will begin at Nasrec on Saturday, the Bloemfontein High Court will deliver its judgment at 14:00 on Friday. DM

File Photo: ANC Free State leader Ace Magashule in Mangaung, 18 December 2012. (Greg Nicolson / Daily Maverick)

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