Africa-Press – South-Africa. After delays, the conference is scheduled to start on Saturday. Only accreditation processes took place on Friday and all other programmes were pushed back.
The court granted the urgent interdict application on Friday night after aggrieved member Tshepo Bosman argued that the IPC was unconstitutional because its term of office ended three years ago.
The IPC, led by coordinator Hlomani Chauke, was formed by the ANC’s highest decision-making body, the national executive committee (NEC), in 2018.
According to party policy, all temporary structures have nine months at the helm.
The court declared that the first respondent (the IPC) did not have voting powers at the conference.
The ruling does not prevent the conference from going ahead. However, it means the current interim leadership’s involvement is drastically limited.
The 22 respondents cited in the application included members of the IPC and the national ANC. Costs were awarded against them.
IPC members and ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe indicated that they had instructed their legal team to study the ruling and advise the NEC on it.
During a state of readiness briefing before the court’s ruling on Friday, optimistic Chauke described the application as a “non-starter”.
Bid to interdict ANC North West conference delegates
“There are no issues. We believe very strongly that there will be no pickets. Someone will have to give us a reason on why they are picketing because those postponements of the conference were meant to accommodate everyone as part of our renewal and rebuilding process,” Chauke said at the time.
Another stumbling block that needs the party’s urgent attention before the conference kicks off, is a culpable homicide case from 2018, which had been provisionally withdrawn, that has come back to haunt North West chairperson hopeful, former human settlements MEC Nono Maloyi.
Maloyi’s contenders are using it as leverage to stop him from contesting.
Branches from the North West’s biggest region, Bojanala, wrote to the IPC to ask that Maloyi be prohibited from standing for election, given that the serious charge could be reinstated. They argued that the matter was not struck off the court roll.
Following Mandla Msibi’s election as Mpumalanga ANC treasurer, the ANC NEC revised the party’s step-aside guidelines. It was resolved that any member who stepped aside voluntarily following an indictment to appear in a court of law on any charge, should not be allowed to stand for election for a branch, regional, provincial or national executive committee position.
As such, the branches from Bojanala made it clear that they would be aggrieved if Maloyi was allowed to stand for election.
In the culpable homicide case, it is alleged that Maloyi was travelling at an extremely high speed on the N12 between Klerksdorp and Stilfontein on 1 September 2018 when he crashed into another vehicle, killing one of its two occupants.
News24 understands that the National Prosecuting Authority recently contacted Maloyi to inform him that “new evidence in the form of a witness” had emerged.
Maloyi told News24 on Friday afternoon that it was tragic that political rivals were using such an unfortunate situation for political gain.
He said:
In the hotly contested elections, five candidates are expected to battle it out for the provincial chairpersonship.
Among those contesting are current premier and ANC stalwart Bushy Maape, Economic Development MEC Kenetswe Mosenogi, Maloyi, and former provincial chairperson Supra Mahumapelo.
They require either a 20% nomination from branches that have been properly convened and will take part in the conference, or 25% support from voting delegates if they are nominated from the floor.
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