The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has refused to comment about a High Court ruling on Friday in Grahamstown, which has prevented their provincial elective conference from going ahead this weekend.
It is the latest in a string of factional battles splitting the organisation.
“I have no response,” ANCYL secretary general Vuyiswa Tulelo, told the Mail & Guardian on Friday.
Controversial league president, Julius Malema, was due to attend the conference this weekend in a province that has been divided between his faction and another. However Grahamstown High Court Judge, Justice Nomatamsanqa Beshe, interdicted the Youth League from holding the conference.
Read our analysis: Battle on as Malema moves to wrest back power
The league’s national executive committee (NEC), led by Malema, disbanded the provincial executive committee aligned to Malema’s rival and deputy Andile Lungisa last month.
The disbanded committee as a result took the NEC to court to reverse its decision and to interdict the planned gathering.
Beshe dealt a blow to the divided league saying they were “hereby interdicted from holding a Provincial Congress at Grahamstown or any other place in the Eastern Cape on the 10th of July 2010 or any other date unless such Congress is convened at the instance and with the participation of the provincial executive committee in the convening of such a congress.”
Beshe said that the decision taken on June 9 by the league’s National Working Committee to dissolve the Eastern Cape Provincial Executive Committee was unlawful.
The conference was to be held at Rhodes University on Friday and Saturday, to elect a new structure for the Eastern Cape branch, according to Grocott’s Mail.
Pay up
Now the league has been ordered to pay the costs of the application and the costs of the two applicants — chairperson of the disbanded Eastern Cape ANC Youth League Mlibo Qoboshiyana.
The court case is part of a battle for control of the league, between Malema and Lungisa. The two are expected to fight it out in what is likely to be a fiercely contested leadership election next year.
Malema-aligned league spokesperson Floyd Shivambu denied having any knowledge of the court application. “I don’t know about this,” he said.
The incident is the latest instance of the troubled league’s factionalism finding its way into court.
Earlier this month a last-minute agreement between the lawyers of the warring factions of the ANC Youth League in Limpopo resulted in a postponement of a disciplinary hearing in which ANCYL provincial leader and Malema rival, Lehlogonolo Masoga, was charged with insubordination.