ANC Free State 3 members head back to court to challenge party list
Three disgruntled ANC members in the Free State are again heading to court to challenge the validity of the party’s provincial conference and, by extension, its provincial and national lists.
The three members Dan Khothule, Abiel Mokotso and Gideon Ntwanambi lodged their application at the Johannesburg High Court on May 10.
This is the second attempt by the three to have the conference declared unlawful and unconstitutional.
In April their urgent application was struck off the court roll by the same court.
There has been a public outcry over some of the names that featured on the ANC lists for the National Assembly and some provincial legislatures.
The party’s stalwarts raised similar concerns and called on those implicated in corruption and state capture allegations to remove themselves from the lists.
In their application, the three argue that there was no properly constituted branch general meeting (BGM).
They charged that: “BGMs did not achieve the required quorum of attendance by 50% plus one.”
Despite being successfully nominated at lawfully convened BGMs as candidates, they expected to be on the Free State ANC ballot papers to be voted on at the provincial list conference, they said.
“Despite their nomination, the applicants and other aggrieved members were gratuitously and unjustly removed by the respondents from participating,” they said in court papers.
The respondents include the IEC, Free State provincial ANC executive, party secretary-general Ace Magashule and the ANC.
Exhausted all possible internal ANC processes
The applicants allege that the matter was taken up with NEC members Barbara Creecy of the ANC’s national list appeals committee and its chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
After their efforts failed, they made written submissions to ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and Magashule.
“To date, we have not received any further information regarding the decision of the national list appeals committee or the NEC regarding the complaint as lodged…
“We have exhausted all possible internal processes available to us and are now completely ignored…” the applicants argued.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe could not be reached for comment.