Disgruntled African National Congress (ANC) North West members who want the party’s 9th Provincial Elective Conference together with its outcomes declared unlawful and invalid, say they intend to approach the highest court in the land to challenge the high court judgment that verified the conference.
The Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed their application on Thursday, with costs.
The appeal challenged the legitimacy of the province’s leadership elected in 2022.
The North West High Court had ruled in favour of the ANC against the applicants Lebogang Medupe and others, who argued that the ANC’s Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) did not have the power to organise the provincial elective conference in August 2022.
Medupe says, “Our case is very simple, it’s not complex. it’s a straightforward issue that the term of office of the then IPC had elapsed because the constitution of the ANC is very clear that an interim structure must convene a conference within a period of nine months. Once nine months lapse, it means there’s no interim structure that exists. We are currently assembling a team of lawyers to study the judgment. By next week we should have a way forward, but I can assure you that we are going to approach the apex court in the land.”
While the provincial ANC welcomed the ruling, a political analyst from North West University, Thabang Motswaledi says the applicants wanted to capitalise on a precedent set by former leaders of the party who were successful in taking the ANC to court.
“We have had an issue in the Free State Province whereby Ramagaza had taken the ANC to court and ultimately he won that particular battle against the African National Congress. Also not forgetting that Supra Mahumapelo, the former premier of North West province also took the ANC to court at the particular instance and he won the case against the African National Congress. Even though he never actually enforced that particular judgment that was taken. So I think in this particular instance the same applicants wanted to preside on the same precedence.”
North West ANC provincial conference legitimacy challenged
