Dismissed interdict leads to ‘parallel’ ANC conference

A FAILED court interdict aimed at halting the first ANC regional conference to be held in Mangaung in 10 years has not stopped the applicants from running their own conference.

Four applicants approached the Bloemfontein Division of the High Court on Friday with a view to urgently interdict their regional conference over alleged fraudulent branch general meetings.

According to the court papers, seen by sister newspaper the Pretoria News, the interim regional committee of the ANC in Mangaung was an illegal structure that perpetuated fraudulent and irregular conduct towards the elective conference, which ensued over the weekend. The applicants indicated that interim regional structures were set up in the Free State after a Supreme Court of Appeal decision to declare the provincial executive committee unlawful last year.

They told the court the interim regional committee notified branches that the Mangaung regional conference would be held on November 18, 19 and 20, but the dates were changed. The applicants said they had lodged their disputes at national, provincial and regional level.

The High Court dismissed the application with costs.

Spokesperson, Fani Ledimo, said: “We lost the urgent matter with costs and the reasons will be provided in 20 days. Our application was more on interdicting the conference based on irregularities during crucial branch meetings.

“There were clear instances all over the media where some comrades were caught generating barcodes in branches they don’t belong to.

“There were 23 disputes that were referred back to the interim provincial committee but they were never dealt with.”

He said Luthuli House summoned eight branches implicated in the fraud, but there had not been any finality.