Pan Africanist Congress leader Maxwell Nemadzivhanani was expelled from the party for three years on Friday, and he will not stand for any position at the PAC national congress in Soweto on Sunday.
Nemadzivhanani, the only PAC Limpopo MPL, can appeal against his expulsion once he received a letter informing him about the decision.
He can appeal within 30 days, PAC national representative Waters Toboti said on Friday.
”Anybody who has been expelled from the PAC cannot stand for any position,” Toboti said. ”The constitution does not allow for that. He has got the right to appeal.”
Toboti said PAC general secretary Thami ka Plaatjie would write to Nemadzivhanani in due course, telling him that the PAC National Executive Committee agreed that he should be expelled from the party for three years.
It was the first time that the PAC NEC sat on Friday to discuss recommendations that Nemadzivhanani be fired from the party. The PAC disciplinary committee made the recommendation last week.
Nemadzivhanani appealed after he heard that he was going to be fired from the party prior to its national congress in Soweto to elect a new leadership. That was premature, Toboti said.
”You cannot be sentenced today, and ask the court to listen to your appeal today. That is unusual,” he said. ”The timeframe does not allow that. The appeal was rejected. (But) he can appeal further.”
Nemadzivhanani was suspended on April 26 for allegedly disrupting the party’s national audit committee meeting on March 23.
His suspension remained in force until the PAC NEC ratified the decision of the disciplinary committee on Friday. Jabhi Ligege, a provincial executive committee member, was summarily expelled from the PAC alongside with Nemadzivhanani.
Ligege may appeal to the national congress of the party.
After Nemadzivhanani was suspended, the PAC NEC dissolved the Limpopo executive committee, and put PAC national organiser Themba Godi in charge.
The purpose of the audit committee — set up in January — was to verify which PAC members would qualify to vote at this weekend’s national congress.
The committee was appointed following allegations that some PAC leaders rigged votes at the party’s national conference in Umtata last year.
It was discovered at the congress that under-age voters — most of them from Free State branches — had participated in the elections. Some voters were also not PAC members.
Nemadzivhanani, Plaatjie and PAC deputy president Motshoko Pheko are campaigning for the presidency.
On Friday, a lobby group calling for Nemadzivhanani to be reinstated into the party so he could vie for the PAC deputy presidency post, said the PAC leader was the candidate to take the troubled party into the future.
”He is the man who can take it to greater strides,” lobby group spokesperson Mbuyiswa Gantsu told a press conference in Johannesburg on Friday.
Gantsu said it would be unfair if the PAC NEC did not lift the suspension.
”The congress should lift his suspension because he is the man who can unite the party together with the secretary general Thami ka Plaatjie.
”We hope that on Saturday when the congress starts, Nemadzivhanani will be part of the NEC and a full PAC member,” said Gantsu.
Nemadzivhanani was not able to brief the media due to his suspension. The national congress of the PAC started on Friday and would end on Sunday, with a new leadership in place.
Centre for Political Studies director Steven Friedman said the challenge that faced the PAC was to produce a credible process.
”The PAC needs leadership that will give it credibility. Nobody takes it seriously, even though there are people who believe in its ideals,” Friedman said.
He said more than one percent of the electorate agreed with the PAC on issues like land but ”the question is can it deliver on its promises when it fails to run the party properly?
”We will see tomorrow if they will get their acts together.” – Sapa