Bloemfontein - The Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday put an end to a long-running leadership battle in NAFCOC in a ruling discounting the legitimacy of a previous president's appointment.
The judgement, from a panel of five appeal judges, in Bloemfontein, found that a meeting held in December 2012 during which Rev Joe Hlongwane was elected to the top position of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NAFCOC) was “not lawfully convened...
“The resolutions taken at the meeting were invalid and of no force and effect.”
As such, his rival Lawrence Mavundla - who was re-elected to the position on September 22, 2014 - is now positioned as “the duly elected president...for a further 5 year term,” said NAFCOC secretary general Monga Phala in a statement issued by the organisation.
In July last year, Mavundla and several others were suspended by Hlongwane for bringing the organisation into disrepute.
Previously in February, Mavundla and his group lost in the High Court in Johannesburg to have Hlongwane's leadership declared invalid.
In the Supreme Court of Appeal judgement NAFCOC was branded as “an organisation at war with itself... 1/8whereby 3/8 its members have, not for the first time, split into two factions.”
According to the NAFCOC website, the organisation is “an independent and non-profit business support organisation primarily, but not exclusively, serving the black community.”
Founded in 1964, NAFCOC puts its membership numbers at 156 000 and says its roots lie in early informal black trader organisations dating back to the 1940s.
Sapa