The ANC’s national working committee has appointed Doctor Xhakaza, who lost against Mzwandile Masina for the position of Ekurhuleni regional chairperson in last year’s elections, as task team convenor. (LinkedIn)
The ANC’s national working committee (NWC) has appointed Doctor Xhakaza, who lost against Mzwandile Masina for the position of Ekurhuleni regional chairperson in last year’s elections, as task team convenor.
In a letter to the provincial secretary TK Nciza, written by the party’s secretary general Fikile Mbalula, it was said that the NWC decided that the Ekurhuleni regional conference should be re-run.
This follows a July ruling by the high court which set aside, with costs, the disputed Ekurhuleni regional conference, which saw the reelection of Masina and Nciza to top positions last year, before going on to assume higher positions at provincial and national level.
Mbalula said that he was mandated by the NWC to study the legal implications of the judgment for the organisation.
“In pursuance of this mandate, two legal opinions were obtained, including by senior
counsel, who advised that there were no prospects of success in appealing against the judgment and order of the court. Furthermore, the ANC’s decision to withdraw the application for leave to appeal and re-run the Ekurhuleni conference was the correct decision under the circumstances,” he said.
Xhakaza will be deputised by Eric Xayiya while the NWC has named former acting regional chair Jongizizwe Dlabathi as task team coordinator with Moipone Mhlongo as his deputy.
Dlabathi was appointed as acting chair following Masina’s election to the national executive committee.
A meeting to brief the newly appointed task team members is expected to take place this Wednesday at Luthuli House, the letter instructed Ncinza.
Eight disgruntled ANC members went to court citing unfair processes in the lead-up to the regional conference, which was marred by violence.
The disgruntled ANC members argued that the auditing and verification of members in good standing was performed by the ANC’s organising committee led by Nomvula Mokonyane, who is at the centre of the disputed numbers.
They accused Nciza of singling out certain branches for possible disqualification from attending the conference on the basis of allegedly flouting a rule relating to the electronic scanning of members’ identity documents for registration.
They said Nciza purported to make the complaint on behalf of the then regional task team, but its other members said the complaint was his alone and accused him of fiddling with the verification process.
They alleged that four branches singled out for complaint were disqualified just a week before the conference, giving them no time to exhaust appeal processes.
The disgruntled members told the court that the ANC decided that the conference should proceed with the 14 votes of the four branches being quarantined, meaning they would not be counted pending the final determination of the appeals. The same arrangement was made in respect of ward 83, where an appeal was allowed to be lodged on the day of the conference and its five votes quarantined pending the appeal.
The applicants argued that the quarantined votes turned out to be potential swing votes in the conference and this led to the declaration of the elections as being provisional.
Judge Denise Fisher said the decision that was taken once the period of the Gauteng provincial conference had already started gave the impression that every attempt was being made to forge ahead with the conference regardless of the illegalities which had ensued.
Xhakaza lost the election against Masina last year in a disputed regional conference. Masina received 163 votes while Xhakaza received 151.