ANC to hold talks on KZN judgment

The ANC will hold a special national executive committee meeting on Monday to decide on the way forward after the election of its KwaZulu-Natal leadership was declared unlawful.

The meeting takes place amid disagreement between the party’s national office and the now defunct provincial leadership over whether to appeal against the court judgment.

There is concern that the judgment, which was a blow to the faction aligned to President Jacob Zuma, could derail the ANC’s national elective conference in December.

The province has 15 days to appeal and the next scheduled national executive committee meeting takes place only at the end of September.

This comes as two other ANC regions — the North West and the Eastern Cape — battled the party in court this week.

On Thursday, ANC national spokesman Zizi Kodwa said that Monday’s special meeting would deal with the KwaZuluNatal judgment only.

Business Day reported on Tuesday that one possibility was for a provincial task team to be set up to replace the illegal KwaZulu-Natal executive committee. The other option was to appeal against the judgment.

The president’s backers are likely to put up a fight on Monday to ensure that if a task team is put in place, it is made up of leaders aligned to Zuma.

The previous provincial executive committee leadership members under Senzo Mchunu, aligned to deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, are likely to argue that due to the illegality of the election that ousted them, they should be returned to their posts or a new elective conference held.

ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize told journalists on the sidelines of the Metals and Engineering Indaba in Johannesburg, they would have to make sure the decision of the national committee did not contaminate the December conference.

PRESIDENT’S BACKERS ARE LIKELY TO PUT UP A FIGHT … TO ENSURE A TASK TEAM IS MADE UP OF LEADERS ALIGNED WITH ZUMA

“The election of leadership should not be contaminated with the outcome of the court case,” Mkhize said.

“What is important is to make sure we bring all the different groups together, the leadership and those who were part of the previous leadership, into a dialogue that must help us to try and stabilise the province and resolve the issues that caused the kind of situation that we are in.”