ANC faces new court threat from members in North West
1 March 2019
Just as the ANC’s rapid task team - appointed to broker peace between the North West provincial executive committee (PEC) and the provincial task team (PTT) - succeeds in getting the two warring groups to work together, six party members are threatening to derail its progress.
News24 has seen a legal letter sent by some ANC members to secretary general Ace Magashule on February 27, giving him 48 hours to respond to concerns over the rapid task team’s powers to establish a PTT.
The party members' lawyer, Tsholofelo Shuping, confirmed that he was acting on behalf of ANC members from various regions in the embattled North West province.
Letter of demand
"We’ve served the ANC with a letter of demand, it must respond today, failing which, we must approach the court on an urgent basis today to set aside the decision," Shuping told News24.
The ANC in the platinum rich province has been at war with itself, with its former provincial chairperson Supra Mahumapelo and four others taking on an August 2018 decision by the ANC’s national executive committee - the party’s highest decision-making body in between conferences - to disband his executive committee and appoint an interim structure.
Mahumapelo won two bids in court - the first for his PEC to be reinstated and the PTT declared invalid, and the second an enforcement order to allow him back into office with immediate effect.
However, the NEC, which is appealing both judgments, opted to seek a political solution instead of allowing Mahumapelo back into office and, through its rapid task team, was able to establish a task team made up of both PEC and PTT members.
Shuping’s clients have, however, rejected the new development.
Thapelo Galeboe, one of the aggrieved members said the ANC’s rapid response team was not a constitutional structure, but had been set up to address a specific issue.
"In its terms of reference, it’s there to ensure there’s unity for election success. It’s not here to disband or appoint structures. That’s a political intervention by either the NEC or NWC (national working committee)," said Galeboe.
Recommendations
He said the rapid task team - which is made up of ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte, and NEC members Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Sdumo Dlamini - could only make recommendations and not take decisions.
Last week, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa told NEC members he was joining efforts to establish unity in the embattled province.
The ANC confirmed having received the legal letter, but dismissed it as "baseless".It’s acting spokesperson, Dakota Legoete, told News24 that the rapid task team had been established by the NEC and was led by party deputy president David Mabuza.
"It has the mandate to intervene and then report to the NEC for ratification," explained Legoete.
He said the ANC’s NWC had already endorsed the report on the organisation in the North West, adding Hope Papo and Amos Masondo to the new PTT.
"From here on, it will go to the NEC for ratification. We don’t call an NEC every day," he said.
