A Pietermaritzburg High Court judge on Wednesday set aside the suspension of Ziba Jiyane, the founder of the National Democratic Convention (Nadeco).
The judge also stopped Jiyane’s rivals from taking any steps to suspend any other member of Nadeco, Jiyane said in a statement.
”The judge directed that the federal electoral congress scheduled for September 23 2006 be held in one venue as requested in my application,” he said.
Jiyane said Nadeco’s electoral congress would take place at Mkhumbane Community Hall at Cator Crest, Durban, on September 23 at 10am.
He said the judge further ruled that the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa is authorised and directed to serve as one of the two electoral institutes.
The other would be the Independent Association of South Africa.
”As president of Nadeco, I feel vindicated by this high court ruling,” Jiyane said.
”All I ever wanted was to ensure that there would be one Nadeco electoral congress … and that nobody was disadvantaged.”
Jiyane is at the centre of the battle, his camp pitted against that of Assan Mbatha, a former African Christian Democratic Party member who defected to Nadeco.
Jiyane claims the rival faction was organising a separate electoral congress at a different venue.
In August, Judge Achmat Jappie ruled that decisions at a Jiyane-organised Nadeco meeting in Durban on July 28 were invalid because there was no proper notice of the meeting.
Mbatha had claimed the meeting was called to elect members of the party’s Interim Federal Council.
Nominations were not distributed through party structures and no notice was given of the election until those invited got there. The meeting — attended by armed guards — was closed to all but invited members. — Sapa