High court rules ANC Ekurhuleni 2022 conference null and void

The high court in Johannesburg has set aside the “chaotic” 8th regional conference of the ANC in Ekurhuleni which took place in 2022.

The conference, which saw Mzwandile Masina re-elected chairperson, was initially planned for 2021 but was not convened due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The outgoing Ekurhuleni executive committee was led by Thembinkosi Nciza, currently the party’s Gauteng secretary.

The ruling also set aside all decisions and resolutions which were taken at the conference which was held at the Indaba Hotel in Fourways, northern Johannesburg, from May 27 to May 29 2022.

The ANC has been ordered to pay the costs of the application, which was brought by party members Jabulani Sithole, Rethabile Samson Lukhele and Dolly Molly Nkosi, among others.

The group hauled the party and its regional structures, among others, to court to have the conference’s decisions, resolutions and elections resulting from the event set aside.

They were contending that some of the branches were disqualified from the conference in a manner that was procedurally unfair and irregular.

“In the lead-up to the conference and as at the beginning of May, the national organising committee led by [party deputy secretary-general] Nomvula Mokonyane produced a verification of membership report which recorded that there existed 112 branches, with about 20,706 members in Ekurhuleni,” wrote high court judge D Fisher.

Following an assessment, 108 branches were verified as in good standing; 99 branches were, in terms of the audit, qualified for participation at the conference. This meant nine branches had been disqualified and four others had not been verified.

“Importantly, this was not a correct reflection of the state of affairs in relation to ward 83 in that its branch meeting had been set aside by the provincial dispute resolution committee as a result of a complaint made by [Sithole],” said Fisher.

“As far as the other four branches were concerned, this standing was to change as a result of the direct intervention of Nciza.”

Nciza on May 3 2022 sent a letter to the office of the party’s secretary-general with the subject “Flouting of conference guideline and manipulation of scanner”.

He said it had “come to his attention” that in certain branch meetings involving eight wards, members were not being electronically scanned but instead their identity numbers were directly taken from the attendance register and “punched in to the scanner while members were not even present in the meeting”.

“It is never explained how Nciza came by the information in the letter,” said Fisher.

Nciza wrote a second letter where he informed its recipients that the regional task team had held its ordinary meeting on May 8 2022 where it was resolved that “the RTT [regional task team] in its collective wisdom, request the national organising office through the provincial secretary’s office to probe certain branches suspected to have “convened their meetings outside the prescribed organisational processes”.

In this letter, there were only five wards mentioned.

The party found that Nciza’s complaints were correct in relation to four wards.

“The answer fails to give any detail as to the process followed in relation to the disqualifications. It is merely stated that these disqualifications happened ‘at a meeting’. This shows a failure on the part of the ANC to appreciate and deal with the fact that, prima facie, such disqualification did not happen in accordance with the procedure in the guidelines and the constitution,” said Fisher.

Nciza was summoned to a meeting held by the Gauteng provincial office bearers where the regional task team informed the POBs (provincial office bearers) that the letter of complaint was not authorised by the RTT and that it did not emanate from the RTT.

The RTT members claim that they had not even seen the letter dated May 3.

The RTT was then instructed by the POBs to convene a meeting to deal with the issue and give feedback to the POB.

It is stated further in this letter that Nciza refused to table it for discussion at the next RTT meeting. The members of the RTT complained that they were, as a task team, thus unable “to deal with the complaints in this letter”.

Fisher said the allegations from the RTT members were very serious. “They cry out for an explanation. And yet they are not dealt with by the ANC.

“It seems that these concerns of the RTT members were not taken into account, because...Mokonyane made a report as to the disqualification of five wards…and mentioned one branch that qualified but did not run elections,” said Fisher.

sibanyonim@sowetan.co.za