Law firm demands ANC Northern Cape chair Saul cancel planned conferences

A letter from a law firm to ANC Northern Cape chairperson Zamani Saul is the latest in a string of legal challenges mounted by ANC members in factional battles ahead of the party’s elective conference scheduled for December.

The group of ANC members do not acknowledge the legality of the party’s provincial executive committee (PEC) that was elected in May, when Saul rose to power.

He was elected unopposed after his predecessor and rival, the Northern Cape premier, Sylvia Lucas, shockingly declined nomination at the provincial conference in Colesberg. The rest of her slate also surprisingly turned down nomination.

She indicated she intended to appeal the outcome of the conference within ANC structures due to what she considered electoral “irregularities”.

Observers have seen her as pro-Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, while Saul openly backs Cyril Ramaphosa.

Her group cited membership audit irregularities, which included the duplication of branch memberships and cloning of members. It claimed if these problems were not corrected, it would affect the results of the elections at the conference.

The lawyers’ letter from Mabuza Attorneys makes it clear that Saul still faces internal challenges. His opponents are not happy that the province intends to convene “the Branch General Meeting for the Regional Conferences during October 2017” and “all Regional Conferences during the weekend of 10-12 November 2017”.

They continue to believe that the current PEC is unlawful and that it is too late to hold the planned conference after ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe declared that no provincial or regional conferences should be held beyond 30 September (today).

The lawyers’ letter demands that Saul should cancel the planned conferences and, in effect, dissolve his own PEC.

Read the full letter below:

Letter to ANC NC Chairperson 29 by Charles Cilliers on Scribd