Free State ruling: Magashule left red–faced

Ruling deals big blow on cusp of national election

The high court in Bloemfontein dealt another blow to the ANC when it halted its Free State elective conference that was scheduled to take place this weekend.

It is the second province to be slapped with a damaging court order on the brink of the party’s national elective conference expected in less than three weeks’ time.

The Free State judgment adds further risk to the success of the December conference and renders the national meeting vulnerable to litigation. The judgment came a day before the Pietermaritzburg High Court will hear an appeal application by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive committee, after the 2015 conference that elected them was declared unlawful last month.

The Free State elective conference was set to take place in Parys, but it will be impossible to convene if meetings are unlawful.

It is unclear how the ANC in the Free State will navigate a court order that declares that its provincial elective conference cannot take place before 29 branch general meetings (BGMs) are re-run.

The province held an urgently convened provincial general congress on Tuesday, a day before the judgment was given in the high court. The province nominated Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for president.

The court ordered that the conference should not be held until 29 BGMs, which have been declared unlawful and irregular, are held in a lawful manner.

Hanno Bekker, attorney for the members who brought the case, said there has to be seven days’ notice given before a BGM can be held. There is thus not enough time to convene these meetings before Friday, Bekker said.

ANC Free State spokesman Thabo Meeko said the province was still consulting on the way forward, but he does not think the re-run of the BGMs will have an impact on the outcome of Tuesday’s PGC.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the BGMs, in line with the court order, have to be re-run.

“Courts are not supposed to run political parties. When they take over that responsibility, it can only bring us chaos,” Mantashe said.