The ANC leadership has to battle court cases as provincial structures continue to fight.

Yesterday KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) rebels as well as an anti-Ace Magashule faction in the Free State took to the courts in their respective provinces to fight the pro-President Jacob Zuma, Magashule and Sihle Zikalala factions.

In KZN, the anti-Zikalala faction wants the court to rule that Zikalala and his executive should operate outside the ANC while they are appealing a court judgement that nullified their leadership.

"I seek an order that the judgment and order of the KwaZulu-Natal high court of 12 September 2017 shall immediately become enforceable and executable, pending the application for leave to appeal and any subsequent appeals either to the Supreme Court of Appeal or to the Constitutional Court," said Lawrence Dube in court papers filed yesterday.

Dube, a Vryheid councilor and first applicant in the court case against the provincial executive committee (PEC), also wants the court not to allow the Zikalala faction to appeal the ruling that nullified their leadership. The rebel group wants the PEC, under Zikalala to be disbanded and a provincial task team set up to prepare for a re-run of the conference.

This comes after the ANC national executive committee gave the PEC the green light to appeal the recent Pietermaritzburg High Court ruling which declared the ANC's 2015 KZN elective conference null and void.

Dissolution of the PEC could be a blow to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's ambitions of replacing Zuma as ANC leader at the national elective conference in December.

Meanwhile, in the Free State, the anti-Magashule group does not want the premier and his PEC to preside over the December provincial conference.

Mncedisi Bokwa and Lonwabo Dyi filed papers in the high court seeking an urgent declaratory order that will prohibit Magashule's PEC from directly or indirectly conducting themselves as members of the committee, among other things.

The applicants argue that Magashule's PEC's term of office expired on May 12 and that the ANC's constitution does not allow them to hold office for more than four years.

This takes place as the Free State ANC prepares for its provincial conference, after the anti-Magashule group won a court order that the conference should be held from December 1 to 3.

Although the group does not want Magashule and his PEC to oversee the running of the conference, and have threatened to go to court again to have them removed, ANC provincial spokesman, Thabo Meeko, said they were preparing for the conference.