Zuma, Mantashe pulled into ‘rigged poll’ drama

Battle for ANC leadership in KwaZulu-Natal in court

Although not part of the respondents, President Jacob Zuma and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe have been drawn into the courtroom drama at the Pietermaritzburg High Court where ANC rebel branches are seeking to nullify the party’s “rigged” 2015 provincial conference.

The ANC top six officials were cited by one of the applicants’ lawyers Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi as having been complicit with the Sihle Zikalala slate that had triumphed, trouncing Senzo Mchunu and his supporters, in that they condoned the delay suffered by the aggrieved branches.

“My clients met with President Jacob Zuma on December 12 2015 in Durban ... he undertook to refer the matter to the NEC and respond to the applicants in five days. However, he never fulfilled the undertaking,” Ngcukaitobi said.

He said the applicants later approached Mantashe in writing in April 2016 for further relief.

“For five months they waited for Zuma and that is why they wrote to the ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe. He told the complainants that he shouldn’t be addressed through lawyers as the complainants had used their lawyers to write to him,” he said.

Ngcukaitobi said his clients had done a responsible thing by approaching Zuma and Mantashe. He said if they had written to Mantashe in January 2016, they would have been accused of rushing things while the leadership was “still seized” with the matter and because Zuma had not returned with answers.

He said this passage of time meant the applicants had no choice but seek relief from the court.

“Zuma and Mantashe did not create the impression that they were interested, but the opposite,” he said.

Ngcukaitobi also debated with the high court full bench comprising judges Sharmaine Balton, Piet Koen and Mahendra Chetty on whether it had been pre-mature to hold the conference.

Meanwhile, the entire top five of the KwaZulu-Natal ANC including chair Zikalala, his deputy Willies Mchunu, secretary Super Zuma, his deputy Mluleki Ndobe and treasurer Nomusa DubeNcube attended the trial.

A number of streets in the Pietermaritzburg CDB were closed as supporters were bused in.