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An application brought before the South Gauteng High Court to have the Free State provincial list conference revoked by three aggrieved ANC members has been ruled as not urgent.
Judge Nomonde Mngqibisa-Thusi struck the matter from the court roll with costs, including the costs of two counsels on Wednesday meaning that the application will not be head before the May 8 national and provincial elections as the applicants had desired.
The disgruntled applicants, Dan Khothule, Mokotso Mokotso and Mongi Ntwanambi, were alleging that they had been nominated by more than 10 branches and therefore qualified as candidates to be voted for at the provincial list conference, but their names were not included in the ballot paper with the names of candidates to be voted for at the provincial list conference.
They demand that “the ANC provincial list conference held on December 10 2018, its decisions, resolutions and outcomes be declared null and void”.
Attorney Thabo Kwinana representing the aforementioned applicants informed City Press that his clients were challenging the validity of the ANC Free State provincial list conference on mainly two grounds.
“The ANC provincial list conference was held on December 10 2018. Our clients and many other ANC members were either aware or were informed that they had been nominated by more than 10 branches and therefore qualified as candidates to be voted for at the provincial list conference, but their names were not included in the ballot paper with the names of candidates to be voted for at the provincial list conference,” argued Kwinana.
“Had the ANC circulated a draft ballot paper 14 days prior to the provincial list conference, as is required in paragraph 20 of the ANC guidelines, our clients would have seen that their names were excluded and therefore made the necessary interventions, particularly taking the issue up with the ANC provincial structures.”
In their urgent application these disgruntled ANC members were also demanding that the nominated candidates elected during the provincial list conference and eye marked for the ANC Free State provincial legislature and national legislature be overturned.
The applicants also urged the court to recommend that the ruling party and the Free State provincial executive committee should reconvene the branch general meetings no later than April 30 for the purpose of nominating candidates for the provincial and national legislatures.
Their attorney added that “the credentials of the ANC’s delegates at the provincial list conference were riddled with irregularities in that some branches who submitted confirmatory affidavits never held branch general meetings as their attempted meetings did not quorate, however, such branches had delegates at the provincial list conference. That could not be. Such delegates’ appointments were unlawful and fraudulent.”
Had the court granted their application, the applicants also wanted the court to rule that the party should reconvene a provincial list conference for the province no later than May 6.
The applicants had also listed the IEC as a respondent and requested that the electoral body be directed by the courts to “accept the ANC’s amended list of candidates nominated to represent the province of the Free State in the national (province to national) and provincial legislature (province to province) which will be submitted by the ANC as an outcome of these proceedings which list will replace the one already submitted by the first respondent to the third respondent”.
Their application was opposed by the ANC and the party’s Free State provincial executive committee, which said the matter was not urgent.
