ANC North West PEC facing bleak future as court challenge looms

The newly elected ANC North West provincial executive committee (PEC) is being challenged in court because it was allegedly elected in an improperly constituted conference in August last year.

Five party members in the province have approached the high court in Mahikeng for relief claiming the conference was not conducted in line with the ANC guidelines and constitution and the court should declare the conference and its decisions or resolutions as unlawful and set them aside.

How were guidelines violated?

The ANC constitution and guidelines were violated because the conference was conducted by deployed members of the ANC national executive committee  (NEC) instead of the PEC or the interim structure in the absence of the PEC.

At the time the ANC had no PEC after it was disbanded in 2018 and replaced with an interim provincial committee (IPC). Instead of leaving the conduct of the conference in the hands of the interim structure, the NEC deployees did the task to run the conference themselves.

The ANC deployed NEC members Nomvula Mokonyane, Malusi Gigaba, Pule Mabe, Obed Bapela and Gwen Ramokgopa to the North West conference which convened from 12-14 August 2022 at Rustenburg Civic Centre. Mokonyane and Gigaba presided over the credentials process instead of a provincially constituted credentials committee.

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As the NEC was not the correct structure to do the task the applicants asked the court to declare the decisions or resolutions reached at the conference as unlawful because they were arrived at on an unlawful basis. If the court found in favour of the aggrieved ANC members, the conference could be declared unlawful and the decisions or resolutions reached at the gathering as invalid and unlawful including the PEC election. 

What happens if the court challenge succeeds?

This meant that if the application succeeded, the PEC could be disbanded and the process to organise another provincial conference and elect a new PEC would start afresh.

The five applicants in the matter – Lebogang Medupe, Lesego Serapelwane, Puso Moeng, Sello Molefe and Itumeleng Moswane have cited the ANC and the north West ANC top five officials including chairperson Nono Maloyi and provincial secretary Louis Diremelo as respondents. 

In court papers, the applicants’ legal team argued that the ANC secretary-general’s office directed for the provincial conference to proceed under the directive of the ANC NEC deployees despite a letter of demand delivered for the conference to be called off because of irregularities that were committed by the ANC. The conference went ahead and the PEC was elected and resolutions or decisions were made including provincial positions towards the December national conference at Nasrec.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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