Conference court action on ice
Stop-and-go as group waits for top brass’ answer
SHOULD ANC national bosses decide against nullifying the Eastern Cape conference where delegates were injured when a fight over credentials broke out at the East London ICC, lawyer Mvuzo Notyesi will drag the party to court.
Notyesi, who gave President Jacob Zuma and his ANC executive at Luthuli House until last Thursday to nullify the conference or face a court case, said he had been instructed to hold off on filing the papers.
This was because his clients said they first wanted the ANC to deal with the matter internally before going to court.
Notyesi is representing disgruntled ANC members, including O R Tambo Ward 22 ANC branch chairman Baxolile Kulu.
For now, Notyesi said they were awaiting the decision of Luthuli House on the dispute lodged by the Phumulo Masualle group claiming foul play at the controversial conference in East London.
Kulu confirmed they had instructed Notyesi not to file the court papers – yet.
“This is because the ANC PEC, led by comrade Phumulo Masualle as elected in Port Elizabeth in 2013, has lodged a dispute at head office and the national officials and the national working committee are deliberating on the matter to decide on the way forward.
“Although we have confidence they will rule in line with our belief that the conference was flawed and therefore should be nullified, should the outcome not be positive, we will invoke the court action,” Kulu said.
Notyesi said he would move as and when instructed by his clients, but the papers had already been prepared as per the initial briefing by Kulu and the group.
“But understanding the national officials’ meetings and that of the NWC [national working committee], we are faced with a stop-and-go. Therefore we [will] wait to hear what is their decision,” said Notyesi.
This comes after ANC national spokesman Zizi Kodwa at the weekend said the party was planning to meet all provinces where there were ongoing or looming court action to advise members to seek internal remedies first before taking the legal route.
Yesterday’s NWC meetingwhere the Eastern Cape ANC matter was expected to be top of the agenda, started late. The meeting was scheduled to consider submissions of the top six which had several meetings on the matter last week.
The national officials, led by Zuma, met the aggrieved group last Monday at Luthuli House before meeting the national executive committee deployees who oversaw the ICC “battle of chairs” gathering.
This newspaper has reliably learnt that the Eastern Cape provincial police commissioner LieutenantLizeka Ntshinga also submitted a report to Luthuli House on the involvement of the men and women in blue as they had to jump in to restore order during the chair-throwing at ICC.
Ntshinga refused to comment when contacted yesterday.
Kodwa said the party will communicate should there be an update on the issue.
Meanwhile, today Notyesi will be at the Mthatha High Court for the leave to appeal application in the matter where his clients want the 2015 O R Tambo regional conference nullified. —