Former North West premier Supra Mahumapelo is seen at a press conference at Luthuli House, 23 May 2018, where he announced that he would be going on early retirement, thus leaving his post as premier of the North West Province. Picture: Michel Bega
The High Court in Johannesburg has struck off the roll a challenge by a group of ANC members that includes North West’s former premier Supra Mahumapelo against the disbandment of the province’s provincial executive committee (PEC).
This was the second time that the application to have the matter heard on an urgent basis was struck from the roll after the same court made the same ruling on November 9.
The ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) made the decision earlier this year to strip Mahumapelo and the PEC of their powers and install a task team in their place, which was led by now premier Job Mokgoro.
Mahumapelo was originally part of this task team but quit to focus on the court challenge. He and four other ANC members took the NEC to court over what they said was was a procedurally flawed process that violated the ANC’s constitution.
The ANC leadership, however, defended the decision in court, pointing to how branches were performing badly and a general breakdown in leadership in the province. Violent service delivery protests also rocked North West for weeks.
Attorney for Advocate Dali Mpofu, who led Mahumapelo’s legal team, Eric Mabuza said: “The argument which we dealt with was about whether the application was urgent or not.”
Mabuza said the main case by Mahumapelo and the disgruntled lot to decide whether the disbandment of the North West ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) was lawful will be heard in the court on January 28, 2019.
Mabuza said the matter today was about a complaint that the PTT is imposing its own names on a list for candidates to be deployed to parliament and the provincial legislature.
The list will be submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) ahead of next year’s elections.
“So, it had nothing to do with the main case. So we [were] trying to stop that unlawfulness and illegality [by the PTT],” Mabuza said.
Part of Mpofu’s argument in court was to have the PEC chaired by Mahumapelo temporarily reinstated.
Mpofu argued that the PTT is an unelected structure imposed by the ANC’s national leadership and was now abusing its power by placing candidates it favours on the list to be submitted to the IEC.
(Compiled by Charles Cilliers and Carina Koen)
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