Triumphant Mahumapelo to be reinstated as chair
Slams ANC provincial task team which replaced him for ‘hunger for positions, divisiveness’
FORMER North West premier Supra Mahumapelo has urged the ANC to respect the decision of the South Gauteng High Court to reinstate him as the party’s provincial chairperson.
This comes after the court declared the dissolution of his provincial executive committee (PEC) by the ANC national executive committee last year as illegal.
The disbandment of the PEC followed violent protests and allegations of corruption and misgovernance in the provincial administration under Mahumapelo – which also saw him first being kicked out as premier.
Mahumapelo and his close allies, including ANC regional leaders, took the party’s NEC to court to have the PEC’s disbandment declared unlawful and set aside, including the appointment of the provincial task team (PTT) led by Premier Job Mokgoro.
Yesterday, Judge Fayeeza Kathree-Setiloane said the ANC had failed to first consult its lower structures in the North West.
“The dissolution of the PEC is a drastic and draconian measure which ought to have been resorted to as the last resort. The ANC acknowledges as much, but did not deem it necessary to notify and consult with the branches before finalising its decision, nor did it give members of the PEC a hearing,” Judge Kathree-Setiloane said.
She also set aside the appointment of the PTT and ordered that the PEC be reinstated by Friday.
The ruling could plunge the ANC into bruising internal fighting ahead of the general elections, as some of those aligned to the PEC are unhappy with the composition of the elections list for the provincial legislature, whose process they accused the PTT of manipulating.
An elated Mahumapelo called on the ANC top brass to admit its mistakes and respect the ruling.
“We are an organisation that abides by the rule of law. I don’t expect the national leadership of the ANC to do something that is against the Constitution of the republic.
“I hope that our leadership will be candid and humble enough to say ‘we may have thought we took the right decision, but procedural fairness was fundamental for us to have arrived at that decision,’” Mahumapelo said.
He slammed the PTT which replaced his leadership collective, accusing it of hunger for positions, laziness and divisiveness.
“The extent of the instability now in the province is shocking. Some in the NEC are now admitting privately that the decision was not the best one under the circumstances.
“We have told them that ‘these people that you are putting in the PTT are lazy and they do organisational work’. They just wanted to be in positions. As we speak now, they are in four splits within that PTT, therefore they must still be helped themselves to come together,” he said.
Judge Kathree-Setiloane said the ANC also failed to state tangible reasons for disbanding Mahumapelo’s PEC, except through a press statement which said it was in order to “strengthen the organisation and enhance its capacity”.
“If the reasons for dissolving the PEC were its dysfunctionality and ineffectiveness, or the violence and torching in April and May, those reasons should appear in the press statement, which in the ANC’s version are the reasons for the dissolution,” she said.
In a statement, the ANC said it would study the ruling before making a decision on whether to appeal it.
The ANC NEC has been ordered to pay the legal costs.