Parking lot meeting led to ousting of NA members, court hears
An urgent meeting convened in the parking lot of the Cleary Park Shopping Centre is what set the ball in motion for disgruntled Northern Alliance members to axe three of their senior members.
This came to light in Gqeberha’s high court yesterday, when Gary van Niekerk, Stag Mitchell and Bevan Brown finally had their day in court.
Their legal representative, advocate Nicky Mullins SC, said the dispute in question was whether the men had legitimately been removed as members of the party and whether the disgruntled members had the authority to do so.
According to Mullins, it was not in dispute that Van Niekerk had been appointed president of the Northern Alliance and that on the balance of probability he remained in that role.
He said renegade members of the party needed to be stopped from stating they were the legitimate structure as it caused confusion in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.
“The respondents have no counter application to declare that they [Van Niekerk, Mitchell and Brown] are no longer members,” Mullins said.
The respondents are Neville Stanley, Cassius Verhoog, Jannie Adams, Granton Lodewyk, Hayley Gee, Marden Rockman, Kerwin Stuurman and Nora Windvogel.
Mullins detailed how they had rallied for an urgent meeting to be convened at short notice and within 46 minutes on December 9.
When the party’s secretarygeneral, Vasu Padayachy, said it could not be done at such short notice this culminated in the members having a meeting in the parking lot.
After this, letters were sent out stating the three men had been suspended from the party.
On December 12, during a media conference, disgruntled party members demanded the men’s resignations.
By January 7, the news had reached city manager Noxolo Nqwazi and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
“This parking lot meeting was unconstitutional and had no legitimacy,” Mullins said.
“It was a meaningless gathering of disgruntled persons which is a nullity.”
He further referred to the party’s constitution and the correct steps that should be taken to deal with issues and disputes.
Advocate Latham Dixon, who represented the respondents, said the relief that the applicants should have sought was to declare their removal from the Northern Alliance unlawful.
He said the notice of motion only sought to interdict the respondents from misrepresenting that they had been removed and barring them from using the party’s logos and signage.
Dixon said Van Niekerk did not have the authority to hand in a sworn affidavit or to launch the court action on behalf of the party.
“His membership in the party had been terminated and, by implication, he was removed from office as the party president.”
Acting judge Jean Nepgen pointed out that the party’s highest authority was its federal executive, according to the Northern Alliance constitution.
He said he could not find anything which stated that the regional executive committee held the authority to suspend members.
“If you are telling me that the parking lot meeting constituted a decision of the federal executive then you need to point me to the section in your court papers where it states that,” Nepgen said.
Judgment was reserved.