Dodgy: KwaZulu-Natal
An application to interdict the Eastern Cape ANC’s elective conference, which was concluded at the weekend, was struck off the roll by the High Court, sitting in East London on Monday.
Judge Belinda Hartley said the applicants had to pay the costs of the application.
She, however, ruled that the papers filed for case could be used for a possible review of the conference.
Newly elected provincial chair Oscar Mabuyane said on Sunday that the judgment would largely be an academic exercise.
“Tomorrow, there is a judgment at 09.30 with an application that we think is largely an academic exercise because, really, you can’t interdict a conference that has almost concluded its business,” Mabuyane said.
He said the newly elected leadership had just met with its lawyers who assured them they would win the matter.
“We know it’s a start. It’s not the end. The next application we will be waiting for will be definitely the review to set aside the conference, [to] nullify it. Those are tricks that people are playing.”
Attorney Mvuzo Notyesi approached the courts on Sunday morning to interdict the conference from proceeding.
Notyesi, who lost a recent case against the outgoing ANC PEC to have OR Tambo regional elections nullified, was accused of trying to control the ANC.
Eight delegates were injured when violence broke out at the conference in the early hours of Sunday morning. Delegates hurled chairs at each other.
This came after members disrupted events on Friday night, while others who attempted to storm the venue on Saturday night had to be dispersed with stun grenades.