Patriotic Alliance heads to court after ANC coalition break-up

The battle between the Patriotic Alliance (PA) and the ANC in Johannesburg has now reached the courts, with the PA filing papers to have the dissolution of their coalition agreement declared invalid.

The fairly recent relationship between the ANC and the PA came to an end last week after the parties reached a deadlock amid engagements on handling the corruption allegations in the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC).

The PA said the break-up came after the ANC accused them of “purging comrades” who were among the suspended JPC senior officials pending investigations.

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In an application filed to the Johannesburg High Court against the ANC, PA leader Gayton McKenzie contested that the dissolution went against the coalition and the Government Leadership of Unity (GLU) agreement.

The parties were at loggerheads after the PA reportedly rejected the ANC’s request for them to apply pressure on the JPC management to reinstate the suspended senior managers.

The PA rejected the request, saying political parties could not interfere with decisions made by the JPC board and that reinstating the officials would jeopardise the case. But ANC regional secretary Dada Morero disagreed that the managers should be suspended pending investigations, the application said.

“The PA and the ANC reached a stalemate on the best way to resolve the impasse, and instead of submitting the dispute to the PMC [Political Management Council], as per the GLU agreement, the ANC gave an ultimatum to the PA to the effect that – either the PA acceded to the ANC’s demands and ensured that the suspended managers were reinstated, or the ANC would terminate the GLU agreement with the PA, regardless of the impact this might have on themselves or all parties of the GLU agreement, including the possibility of the ANC having to return to the ‘opposition benches’,” McKenzie stated in the application.

Coalition parties and the ANC had entered into the agreements in December 2019 to elect ANC’s Geoff Makhubo as Johannesburg mayor, who had assured McKenzie shortly after the partnership that he intended to uphold the “spirit” of the GLU, said the PA leader.

McKenzie further requested the court to declare all parties of the agreement to be bound to and comply with the terms and conditions of the GLU.

Pending the outcome of their application, they have also filed for the courts to interdict and restrain the ANC from attempting to remove PA representatives, Charles Cilliers and Bakang Lethoko, from the PMC.

ALSO READ: Joburg ANC unbothered by break-up with Patriotic Alliance 

Johannesburg region spokesperson Sasabona Manganye confirmed that the ANC had received a copy of the filed application, adding that it would be challenging the application in the coming days.

“We have handed [PA’s application] to our attorneys to look at them and advise us. So far, our mandate is to challenge the insinuations made by the PA immediately after our legal attorneys have advised. We will then be able to issue an official statement in terms of how we want to respond to those issues,” he said.

-rorisangk@citizen.co.za

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