ANC doesn’t need Ace for election success

JOHANNESBURG - The ANC believes it will do well in the upcoming local government elections despite the absence of the party’s suspended secretary-general Ace Magashule.

This comes after Magashule on Monday lost his appeal application to overturn his suspension from the ANC.

The Johannesburg High Court dismissed his application with costs. With the election happening in less than two months, ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe welcomed the court’s ruling, saying the party will carry on as usual, without Magashule.

“Should it happen that the electioneering falls outside the review period and no different decision has been taken by the decision structure, whether the PEC or NEC or REC, then it means that those conditionalities attached to stepping aside would have to hold until such time that there’s a review,” Mabe told Jacaranda FM.

Magashule, who remains a popular figure of the ANC, appealed the high court’s dismissal in July of his bid to overturn his suspension.

He also wanted the court to uphold his attempt to suspend Cyril Ramaphosa as party president, but the court did not rule in his favour.

In its unanimous judgment, the full bench of the high court found that no other court would come to a different conclusion on Magashule’s suspension.

The embattled secretary-general was suspended in May, in line with the ANC’s rule 25.70, which requires all party members criminally charged to temporarily step aside, pending the conclusion of their cases.

Magashule faces fraud and corruption charges in the Free State in connection with a R255 million asbestos project while he was the province’s premier.

Besides Magashule and other several high-profile leaders’ absence, the ANC is facing further challenges over its process to nominate candidates for the elections.