Due to allegations that it was chosen in an unlawfully organised conference in August of last year, the recently elected ANC North West provincial executive committee (PEC) is currently facing legal challenges.
The conference was not conducted in accordance with the ANC’s guidelines and constitution, according to five party members in the province who have petitioned the high court in Mahikeng for relief. They argue that the court should declare the conference, as well as any decisions or resolutions it produced, to be illegal and toss them out.
The violation
The conference was run by members of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) who had been deployed rather than the PEC or the interim structure in the absence of the PEC, which violated the ANC constitution and rules.
After being dissolved in 2018 and replaced with an interim provincial committee, the ANC did not have a PEC at the time (IPC). The NEC deployees took on the responsibility for conference management themselves rather than leaving it up to the interim organisation.
Nomvula Mokonyane, Malusi Gigaba, Pule Mabe, Obed Bapela, and Gwen Ramokgopa, members of the ANC’s NEC, were sent to the North West conference, which took place in the Rustenburg Civic Centre from August 12–14, 2022. Instead of a provincially appointed credentials committee, Mokonyane and Gigaba oversaw the procedure.
What occurs if the legal challenge is successful?
This meant that if the application was approved, the PEC could be dissolved and a new PEC may be elected after holding a new provincial conference.
The North West ANC’s top five officials, including chairman Nono Maloyi and provincial secretary Louis Diremelo, have been named as respondents by the case’s five petitioners, Lebogang Medupe, Lesego Serapelwane, Puso Moeng, Sello Molefe, and Itumeleng Moswane.
The applicants’ legal team contended in court documents that despite receiving a letter demanding cancellation of the conference due to ANC irregularities, the secretary-office general’s of the ANC authorised the provincial conference to proceed on the direction of the ANC NEC deployees.