Congress of the People acting president Mbhazima Shilowa on Thursday filed an answering affidavit to Mosiuoa Lekota’s court challenge.
Lekota is challenging a vote of no-confidence taken in him at a party congress last weekend.
The matter is expected to be heard in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Friday morning.
Shilowa said in his affidavit that the party was entitled, in terms of its constitution, to remove applicants from their positions as office bearers.
At the chaotic weekend congress, the vote of no-confidence removed Lekota from the party presidency and Phillip Dexter from his position as head of communications.
Shilowa said the decision to remove Lekota and Dexter has been justified and had been taken with good reason and that the decision was not in breach of the resolution of the congress national committee.
Leadership conundrum
On Thursday, Shilowa’s attorney argued his team had not had enough time to respond. After much wrangling between the two legal teams, an order postponing the matter was handed down.
The order was included in an undertaking by Shilowa’s team that Cope could not take any steps to remove Lekota from his office until Friday, nor could it submit new parliamentary lists.
‘Petty’
Speaking outside court on Thursday, Lekota said he was happy his side would be able to present its case.
“I am quite confident that flowing from that we’ll be able to show to the court that what happened at St George’s was not valid,” he said, referring to St George’s Hotel outside Pretoria, where the vote of no-confidence was taken on Saturday.
Cope spokesperson JJ Tabane, aligned with Shilowa, said the party was happy it had more time to prepare. He described Lekota’s court challenge as “petty”.