In a setback for a group of Nelson Mandela Bay ANC members who are hellbent on having the party’s Eastern Cape leadership dissolved, a Johannesburg court dismissed their case yesterday, saying it was not urgent.
The four had turned to the South Gauteng High Court in a bid to force the ANC’s national bosses to implement the recommendations of the Sbu Ndebele report – particularly that the provincial executive committee (PEC) be disbanded.
The four applicants were Nomakaya Ntozini, Ntombekhaya Gunguluza, Nkululeko Mali and Mbulelo Geswindt.
Judge Zeenat Carelse said the group’s claim – that the case had to be ruled on an urgent basis because governance in the Eastern Cape was being negatively affected – was unsubstantiated.
“Nowhere is it alleged what and how the governance in the Eastern Cape has been affected,” she said.
Responding to their claim that their rights as members of the ANC had been infringed, Carelse said they had failed to pinpoint what rights in the ANC constitution had been affected.
“This case is about the Ndebele report,” she said.
“In my view, the applicants have failed to demonstrate what rights have been negatively impacted upon by the Ndebele report.”
Their court bid is one of several by various groups of disgruntled members who feel that the provincial structure elected in East London late last year is not a legitimate one.
Ndebele, who was tasked with investigating the legitimacy of the elective conference – dubbed “the festival of chairs” after it descended into chaos – had recommended that an interim structure be appointed and another elective conference be held within three months.
The ANC’s national executive committee chose not to endorse Ndebele’s report and instead brokered a peace deal of sorts and called for unity.
The judge described as “extraordinary” and “misplaced” the submission by Ntozini, Gunguluza, Mali and Geswindt that if the PEC was found to have been elected invalidly its decisions should be deemed invalid.
Carelse said there was no explanation why the court application had only been launched 11 days after the NEC sat to deal with the Ndebele report and was set down for hearing only a month later.
“What is inexplicable is that the [NEC] met during the period March 23 and March 25 2018. The minutes of that meeting clearly make reference to the Ndebele report.
“The applicants submit that the minutes do not reflect that a decision on the Ndebele report was taken at that meeting.
“That being so, it is inexplicable why the applicants did not launch this application after the NEC meeting if they were of the view that the Ndebele report was not dealt with by the NEC during [that weekend].
“In my view, the applicants have not made out a case for urgency. If there is any urgency, it is self-created,” she said.
The case was struck off the roll with costs.
Attorney Wikus van Rensburg, representing the four ANC members, said the case was dismissed on the urgency and on “factual disputes where oral evidence is needed”.
Asked if his clients would pursue the matter further, Van Rensburg said: “As far as I know, yes, they will.
“The matter will go to the normal court process.”
Ntozini, a member of the ANC’s Bay regional executive committee, said the four had turned to the court as they had exhausted all other ANC internal processes.“Our comrades in leadership positions continue making decisions on behalf of the province even though the conference was not endorsed,” she said.
“Why continue taking serious decisions on behalf of the ANC when they haven’t been endorsed? We’ve been waiting for a political solution in the Eastern Cape and when we picketed outside Luthuli House, we were told it would come by the end of the week but, instead, the PEC reshuffled the provincial cabinet.”
The NEC decided against endorsing Ndebele’s recommendations.
In the ANC’s answering affidavit to the court, it said the party, “in line with the spirit of revival and renewal which was championed by the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, decided that an inclusive political strategy should be found to resolve the impasse”.
Questions over who was funding the court bid by the four were raised by ANC provincial chairman Oscar Mabuyane earlier this month.
When a Herald reporter asked Ntozini about this, she said it was a private matter.
“Suggestions by the PEC that we don’t have money are unfounded as they don’t know our pockets,” she said.
Gunguluza denied any involvement, even though she is named in the court papers as one of the applicants.
When a reporter contacted her, Gunguluza said she did not know anything about a court case and dropped the call.
When the reporter phoned back, Gunguluza said she was busy and asked that she be called back later.
When asked what time would suit her, she hung up the phone.
ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi said the applicants were being used as pawns by others with ulterior motives.
“These people don’t want to accept that the conference sat and resulted in a legitimate structure being elected in the province,” he said.
“We want these people to stop their shenanigans and if they are, in fact, members of the ANC, they must rather focus on helping those less fortunate overcome their circumstances as the ANC is doing.”See the judgment here: