The North West High Court in Mahikeng has dismissed the application by disgruntled ANC members, who wanted the court to nullify the party’s provincial elective conference.
The members were questioning the legality of the conference that elected the current provincial leadership.
Judge Andre Petersen, said the reasons for the dismissal will be revealed later.
“The court issues its order, and reasons for the order shall follow in due course. The order reads as follows, having heard counsel for the 1st and 3rd to 5th applicants. And council for the 6th and 7th applicants.
“Council for the 1st to 5th respondents, council 6th to 9th respondents and council for the amici curiae and having carefully considered the papers filed on record, in respect of the application by the amici curiae, it is a disorder that, roman numeral 1. Application B is hereby dismissed with no orders to costs.
“In respect of the application by the 1st and 3rd to 5th applicants and the 6th and 7th applicants, it is ordered that roman numeral 1, the application B and is hereby dismissed with costs including the costs of two counsels who were employed. The reasons for the orders shall follow in due course,” Petersen said.
ANC Provincial Executive Committee chairperson in the North West, Nono Maloyi welcomed the court ruling.
“We knew from the beginning that we have a strong case. Unfortunately, applicants did not have a case. Their case was scattered all over the show. But I don’t want us to focus on this thing because this was just destruction.
“We have serious responsibilities as the ANC and the ANC-led government. We have too many challenges in the province and we are worried about them. We need to ensure that we respond to issues that require our attention,” said Maloyi.
One of the applicants, Gabriel Nkgweng, said they will wait for reasons and explore other avenues.
“We are not going to leave this particular matter unattended. We are not going to leave it to die its natural death, because we strongly believe that we raised fundamental issues.
“That particular gathering that took place in Rustenburg, the so-called conference that happened on two occasions, was stolen. And we advanced reasons, and we advanced reasons. We didn’t just create things out of nowhere.
“We said based on this particular process, these particular processes were undermined. So in light of that. It rendered that particular conference null and void. So we will wait for the reasons and decide on the next form of action,” Nkgweng said.
