ANC members who take party to court to face expulsion

ANC members who take the party to court over internal grievances may soon face expulsion from the organisation.

That’s according to ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, who told EWN yesterday that party members could approach its internal dispute resolution committee, which is part of some of the ANC’s conference resolutions from its December national conference.

Yesterday, the ANC released its conference resolutions documents following a meeting of its national executive committee (NEC) in Cape Town at the weekend.

Magashule reportedly said ANC members who were not pleased with the outcome of the dispute resolution process had no choice but to accept the committee’s findings. He said party members who were not willing to accept the outcome should rather leave the ANC than go the legal route.

“They must have confidence in that [committee]. That’s how we resolve political issues as a political party and particularly the ANC as a liberation movement,” he said.

This is not the first time the issue of expulsion for taking the party to court has come up.

At the December conference at Nasrec, Johannesburg, then outgoing ANC president Jacob Zuma encouraged delegates to take a firm decision on the matter. Zuma said the ANC had been taken to court so frequently it had led to a situation that “gradually” eroded the authority of the party.

“We can’t begin to believe courts are a solution to ANC’s problems unless it’s a matter the ANC has failed to resolve and you feel strongly about it. You can’t treat the courts as an internal structure of the ANC. That is totally wrong,” Zuma said to loud applause from some provincial delegates.

“I wish this conference can discuss this matter. In the past, we have taken decisions, but had not implemented them. If we implemented them, we could have curbed this sickness,” he added.

– Additional reporting Gosebo Mathope

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