Ace and ANC’s plan to stop members from constantly going to court

Nowadays when one hears the letters ‘ANC’, one almost naturally expects the words ‘court case’ to follow.

The build-up to last year’s national conference was marred by numerous court battles, which affected the outcome of who was elected to the party’s national executive committee (NEC).

The ANC’s “culture” of its members taking it to court has continued this year, with ANC members from the West Rand region alleging there were irregularities at branch general meetings ahead of this month’s regional conferences in Gauteng and threatening to interdict the party.

After much confusion about whether the conferences would be postponed, the ANC in Gauteng said in a statement that all regional conferences would not happen this weekend, though would be concluded by next weekend and the weekend after.

The Limpopo provincial congress is still due to take place this weekend even though there has similarly been the threat of legal action against it by disgruntled members unhappy with the provincial executive committee (PEC) under Stan Mathabatha, which they claim is illegitimate as Mathabatha’s term as chairperson allegedly already expired in February.

Branches in KwaZulu-Natal already interdicted that province’s elective conference earlier this month.

Further, a disgruntled group of Eastern Cape ANC members headed to court on Monday to attempt to force the NEC to implement a recommendation from the Ndebele Appeals Panel that recommended the disbandment of their province’s PEC, which could have a ripple effect of calling into question Cyril Ramaphosa’s legitimacy as ANC leader.

The party was this week also facing a possible challenge from members of about 28 branches in the Free State who demanded that the ANC NEC disband the Free State PEC elected last month.

ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule told the Mail & Guardian this week that the ANC is considering how to dissuade internal litigation, with the primary idea currently being that the party will “punish” members who take it to court by forcing them to pay their own legal fees if they lose their cases.

He explained that the ANC had paid members’ legal fees in the past, even if they lost cases.

Magashule said it would be far more preferable for party members to use the ANC’s national dispute resolution committee so that any unhappiness could rather be resolved internally, with the courts only being a last resort.

“We can now prove to the courts that we have done our best to resolve the disputes internally,” he was quoted as saying, later adding: “We have lawyers to pay and we are going to start recouping the money.”

He said the ANC was aware that current and any future court cases would be a serious impediment to the ANC’s ability to mount a successful elections campaign in 2019.