The South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg has struck an urgent application to halt the ANC Limpopo elective conference off the roll.
“After listening to both parties, the order that I am going to give under the circumstances is that the matter is not urgent and consequently it is struck off the roll with cost,” Judge Nana Makhubele ruled late on Saturday afternoon.
Advocate Dali Mpofu represented the disgruntled party members who applied for an urgent interdict to put the brakes on the elective conference.
This, as the conference some 300km away continued with the second day of proceedings on Saturday.
“These members are saying: ‘the harm arose when our beloved NEC [National Executive Committee] failed us and endorsed the non-existent PEC [Provincial Executive Committee]’,” Mpofu said.
Makhubele then questioned the “harm” or “injury” of the conference going ahead.
Mpofu said it was a threat to democracy.
“The harm now is that the applicants do not want to join a political party that does not respect its constitution. It is about them now, it is no longer about the conference now,” Makhubele said.
Mpofu agreed.
Earlier, Mpofu said the fault lay with the ANC’s NEC because, during a meeting on June 18, they had allegedly mandated the PEC to run the conference.
This came, said Mpofu, after the terms of the office of the PEC had allegedly expired in February.
Makhubele asked Mpofu if the political affiliation was urgent.
“All we are saying is please deliver us a lawful conference and do not endorse an unlawful one,” he replied.
Makhubele wanted to make sure she understood: “The unlawfulness arises from the fact that the PEC overstayed its welcome and then the NEC instead of dealing with the matter, just endorsed their unlawfulness and mandated them to run this conference.”
“Correct,” Mpofu replied.
Mpofu said the PEC was, objectively speaking, in “non-existence”, and it thus did not matter whether they make good decisions.
“The point is that there is no PEC as we are standing here. “
Mpofu argued that the PEC could not be extended, adding that the provincial task team (PTT) would take over.
“If we succeed, the PTT, which will take the place of the dead PEC will oversee the process of branch nomination, branch general meetings, any regional conferences and preparation for provincial. All those things have now been done by the wrong people.”
In closing, Mpofu said at no point did the ANC dispute that the terms of office of the PEC had expired.
Advocate William Mokhari, for the respondents, argued that the matter was not urgent and should be struck from the roll.
He had also argued that the respondents were given a short time to prepare for the interdict.
“When they launched the application, they knew the conference starts on the 22 (June). They knew everybody would be there, delegates would be there, delegates to be booked and they come to court on the 23 (Saturday) and say stop the continuation of the conference.”
He said it was “quite extraordinary” to seek an interdict to halt a conference that was on its second day.
“We submit that the applicants have not made up a case of urgency. In a case like this my lady the appropriate manner is to strike the matter off the role.”