Booing, chaos at ANC KZN conference as court grants interdict

The ANC has again been left red-faced by its own members in KwaZulu-Natal who chose to make the courts the final arbiters instead of turning to their own leaders.

The much anticipated ANC KwaZulu-Natal conference was interdicted by the Pietermaritzburg High Court just as the conference was set to take place.

Provincial leader Sihle Zikalala explained to less than half of the expected delegates yesterday that they had been made aware of the potential of a court challenge as early as Thursday.

Zikalala said that they reported the matter to national leaders whose lawyers then engaged the legal team of the aggrieved members, asking for documentation which stated exactly what the grievances were.

“By 2 o’clock we were yet to get those papers. Myself and Nomagugu (Simelane-Zulu) were in court and we offered to testify to the processes which unfolded leading up to the conference so that the judge understood, but she said no to the offer.

"Instead she instructed all of us to return on July 7,” he said in isiZulu late yesterday evening at the University of Zululand.

Shortly after the judgment was handed down in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, Zikalala’s counterpart in the provincial task team Mike Mabuyakhulu announced that the elective conference would be converted into a consultative conference so that all of the issues which plagued the conference could be ventilated.

The province has been bitterly divided since 2015 when a provincial conference was held which saw former chairperson Senzo Mchunu given the boot in favour of Zikalala.

In September last year the Pietermaritzburg High Court nullified the conference, leading to the disbanding of the provincial executive committee led by Zikalala.

The ANC then established a task team made up of the two warring factions, those in favour of Zikalala and those in favour of Mchunu through his proxy, Mabuyakhulu.

City Press reported last week that negotiations were underway that would see Zikalala stand for the position of chairperson uncontested as opposed to facing off with Mabuyakhulu in a compromise slate of sorts, a suggestion which was snubbed by Zikalala’s supporters.

So divided was the province that it lost its historical kingmaker status at the ANCs elective conference.

At least six leaders from the province gunned for positions as officials of the party and all were rejected by the conference.

The divisions were laid before yesterday when NEC members Bheki Cele and Jackson Mthembu were booed by the delegates who showed up to be addressed by Zikalala and NEC members.

The two leaders who openly endorsed president Cyril Ramaphosa in the run-up to last year’s elective conference got the cold shoulder from supporters of former president Jacob Zuma when they were introduced.

Cele openly backed supporters of Mchunu who had taken to court to have the 2015 conference nullified saying that the NEC of the ANC had failed its members and handed over their leadership reins to the courts.

He went as far as to say, “don’t stop taking us to courts until we learn.”