Court to rule on leadership ... again

ANC appealed the earlier judgment

The fate of the KwaZulu-Natal ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) has again been left in the hands of Pietermaritzburg High Court judges who will decide whether the leadership should vacate office or not.

Judgment was reserved yesterday in the appeal application by the provincial ANC leadership in an attempt to stop the nullification of the party’s chaotic eighth provincial elective conference of November 2015.

In September, the high court declared the conference null and void, but the ANC appealed the following month.

ANC lawyer Advocate Greg Harpur in his heads of argument argued before judges Poet Koen, Charmaine Balton and Mahendra Chetty that removing the PEC from office will cause irreparable damage.

He said there would be huge disruption in the performance of the ANC functions.

The original applicants, represented by Advocate Wim Trengrove and Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, argued they were the ones who had suffered irreparable damage.

Ngcukaitobi argued that the mere noncompliance by the PEC with the original ruling that nullified the conference was causing damage to their clients, noting that their stay was inconsistent with the rule of law.

The case was brought by ANC councillor Lawrence Dube and four others in May last year following the results which saw former premier Senzo Mchunu being ousted as provincial chairman and replaced by Sihle Zikalala.