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Gauteng ANC branches in court fight

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ANC branches in court fight
ANC branches in court fight

Dissident ANC branches in Gauteng’s Sedibeng region want the high court to force the Gauteng ANC to provide the reasons behind former regional leaders being kicked out of office last month.

In the absence of reasons, three branches – Setshedi Nhlapo (Ward 35 in Sebokeng), Futheli Ledula (Ward 14 in Sharpeville) and Machoba Mapogosha (Ward 29 in Evaton) – told the Johannesburg High Court that it appeared the decision was intended to reward the faction that lost the elections during the regional conference in July.

In his application, Oupa Molotsane, the branch secretary in Futheli Ledula, noted that the interim regional task team appointed by the Gauteng ANC “contains an equal number of duly elected members and those who lost the democratic process”.

Provincial ANC secretary Jacob Khawe and ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule are cited as two of five respondents in a two-stage court bid to reinstate the axed regional leaders temporarily until a further application to set aside the provincial decision was concluded.

DEFIANCE

Molotsane said the dissolution of the regional executive committee was also in defiance of Magashule’s directive in October that all provinces should cease to disband regional structures until after the general election in May.

“It appears that [Khawe] and [the Gauteng ANC] have ignored a valid and lawful directive from [Magashule] and [Luthuli House],” Molotsane said.

For this reason alone, he said, Khawe and the provincial executive committee’s decision was “susceptible to be declared invalid and inconsistent with the ANC constitution, and liable to be set aside”.

Molotsane said a planned meeting on January 16, during which the province was expected to explain the decision to branches, was disrupted and the meeting was not concluded. He added that, since then, branches had not been consulted.

Molotsane said that his branch executive committee subsequently wrote to Khawe on January 17 asking for clarity and for the basis for the decision, but the reply received at the end of the month was “evasive”.

He said the axed regional executive committee was democratically elected and, as such, “no prejudice shall be suffered by anyone if the said structure were to operate on an interim basis pending the review application”.

“There are several serious decisions affecting the membership of the ANC in the Sedibeng region that can or should be made by a structure democratically elected by the majority of members,” he said.

The outcomes of the regional conference in July had also been disputed regarding credentials, but the planned court interdict was withdrawn after the province stepped in.

POLITICAL SOLUTION

A team from Luthuli House, led by former KwaZulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu, investigated the disputes and recommended a political solution.

Earlier this month, the province announced Reverend Gift Moerane as the new mayor of Emfuleni Local Municipality in Vanderbijlpark.

He took over from Khawe, who was appointed as mayor in 2017 and served as such until July, when he was elected into the permanent post as provincial ANC secretary.

Molotsane said Khawe had, until last month, been “moonlighting between his full-time position as executive mayor of the Emfuleni Local Municipality and the full-time position as provincial secretary of the ANC in Gauteng”.

Had the former regional executive committee not been disbanded, it would have been its responsibility to forward the three names of preferred candidates for the mayoral post to the provincial executive for a final decision.

Instead, the three names were chosen by the interim task team.

Earlier this month, the ANC Women’s League in Sedibeng marched to Magashule’s office and delivered a memorandum of grievances and requested that the ANC national executive committee reinstate the disbanded regional executive committee.

The league also wanted Luthuli House to “instruct the ANC Gauteng provincial executive committee to retract and rescind” the choice of Moerane and elect a mayor from the three names that were put forward by the regional task team, as tradition dictated.

The ANC replied that Moerane enjoyed the support of all structures of the ANC, the leagues and alliance partners in Emfuleni.


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