KZN ANC vows to defy NEC
IN AN unprecedented move, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has vowed to defy protocol and potentially anger its mother body as the fallout over Tuesday’s High Court ruling on the 2015 provincial conference continued to gain momentum.
The province’s party leagues and regions took the opportunity yesterday to address the media, in the absence of the nullified provincial executive committee (PEC), and said the national executive committee (NEC) should stay away from its legal wrangles because “none of them was at court to support us when we needed them”.
The PEC wants to appeal the judgment of judges Piet Koen, Sharmaine Balton and Mahendra Chetty who ruled that the Pietermaritzburg conference, which elected Sihle Zikalala as provincial chairperson, was “unlawful and void”.
The provincial structures were reacting to media reports that ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe had said only the NEC could decide whether or not to appeal.
KwaZulu-Natal ANC Youth League secretary Thanduxolo Sabelo, who is also a member of the ANC PEC, said the NEC had lost powers to appeal on behalf of the PEC when it failed to show up at the court during the trial and did not even issue a press statement of support.
“We don’t need the NEC’s permission to appeal. It is the PEC that is in court, and this includes the chairperson of the ANC, Comrade Sihle Zikalala, and other PEC members.
“It doesn’t make sense. If you are convicted, does someone else have to appeal for you? Which school teaches that law?” Sabelo asked.
Sabelo said the PEC had been instructed to file an intention to appeal by yesterday.
He said although the PEC had the authority to make its own decisions it preferred to listen to its branches, and not the NEC, which he accused of having withdrawn its lawyers that had been assigned to represent the PEC.
“If branches disagree with the appeal, we will accept that since we are the leadership elected by the branches, but the branches are saying to us ‘appeal this decision’.”
The court matter was delayed when Ngubane and Wills, the legal firm assigned to represent the PEC, withdrew from the case, leaving the party without legal representation. The matter only resumed last month after the province had hired a new lawyer, Greg Harper.
Provincial ANCWL secretary Nonhlanhla Gabela expressed shock that the NEC was taking an interest in the matter now, “whereas during the court proceedings it was nowhere to be seen”. “Even when we appealed for support from the NEC, who presided over the conference, they said nothing,” she said.
ANCYL provincial chairman Kwazi Mshengu said the PEC should be allowed to apply for leave to appeal without the NEC first granting it permission to do so.
He said the PEC still maintained that they were entitled to hold the elective conference a year earlier than scheduled, as holding it last year would have clashed with the local government elections.
He said as soon as the PEC applied for leave to appeal it would be able to continue functioning as the High Court judgment would be set aside pending the outcome of the appeal.
In an interview with Independent Media, Mantashe said only the NEC should appeal as “the ANC is not a federal organisation but is a unitary organisation”.
Dismissing the leagues and regions, Mantashe insisted their call for the PEC appeal was “nonsensical”.
“They cannot do as they please. That is why the PEC knows that, as matter of necessity, it must leave the decision to the NEC. That was not the PEC talking (at the press briefing). It was the leagues who were just talking nonsense,” said Mantashe.
ANC provincial spokesperson Mdumiseni Ntuli said the PEC would discuss the appeal with the NEC.
Meanwhile, Ntuli said the court ruling would not affect embattled NEC member Makhosi Khoza’s disciplinary hearing, which is scheduled to take place on Sunday.
He said the hearing would continue because the “court nullified the conference, while the PEC can only be dissolved by the NEC and not by the court”.
THE KZN ANC chairman and his PEC are invalid and were elected unlawfully, according to a high court judgment on Tuesday. If the ANC doesn’t appeal within 15 days, then they must vacate the ANC provincial office and if there is no appeal, the NEC must appoint a provincial task team to oversee the running of all PEC activities.
It is very sad to see such a situation with the leadership of the ruling party being taken to court almost on every decision made and implemented.
This shows that we have very incompetent leaders or very ignorant leadership. That’s all I see happening in our country.
KZN is gradually becoming the country’s problem.
It is so sad to see that courts are being used to resolve conflict in the ANC. It seems the impact of factions will eventually destroy the ANC. Luckily the judiciary in South Africa is the last line of formidable defence, given the state of lawlessness in KZN and the latest Animal Farm kangaroo court that set to try Dr Makhosi Khoza.
However, it is not necessary for Dr Khoza to appear before the disciplinary committee, because that PEC is not legitimate.
Dr Khoza said: “Now they have been declared unlawful, but logic suggests that if you are an unlawful structure, you can’t discipline anybody. You have no authority to enforce the constitution”.
MATLALA EMANUEL Dihlabaneng