Durban - Attempts to resolve the disputed ANC KwaZulu-Natal conference have hit another snag after the ANC provincial leadership has opposed the matter being heard early next week at the Pietermaritzburg High Court.
The court was to hear on Tuesday next week why the leadership had not filed papers in response to an application to have them removed from office and another conference held.
The aggrieved camp’s lawyer Alpha Zwane said both parties had agreed that the leadership, which is the respondent in the nullification matter, had to go to court next week, but the leadership had since somersaulted.
“They (ANC leadership) felt that between December 15 and January 16 there are no court dates for filing of documents so you cannot file the court documents during that period,” said Zwane.
He said both parties had agreed that the court would have to set another date for the provincial leadership to explain their failure to respond.
The ANC couldn't file the responding papers to the nullification application, which was filed in June, because it was demanding that the application should provide it with all documents that the applicants would use as evidence during the actual proceedings. “The applicants are saying ‘we have given you all the documents that you want’.
“The respondents are saying ‘we are not happy with the documents that you have given us we are now going to ask the court to compel the applicants to deliver those papers’,” said Zwane.
The applicants, members of the ANC who lost the election, want the court to nullify the conference, held in Pietermaritzburg in 2015 at which Sihle Zikalala was elected provincial chairperson against his predecessor Senzo Mchunu.
Zwane said after the ANC leadership had repeatedly failed to file the responding papers the court postponed the case “indefinitely” and it was agreed that the ANC leaders should tell the court on January 17 why it could not respond.
He said both parties would now secure a meeting with KwaZulu-Natal Judge President Achmat Jappie or any available senior judge to decide on a new date for the ANC to provide its explanation.
“We need to deal with the interlocutory before we deal with the main application because so far the respondents have not responded to the main application,” said Zwane.
He was confident that the applicants had a prospect of winning the case against the leadership.
“We have foundation for the case because if you look at the court documents you will see that they (ANC leadership) have a case to answer,” said Zwane.
An aggrieved ANC member, who asked to remain anonymous, said it was possible for them to win the case since it had happened in the Free State in 2014, where the Constitutional Court nullified the provincial conference.
Another member of the group said if the application failed or the case dragged beyond the ANC national conference, they would rely on the new leadership under deputy ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa, if he becomes president, to nullify the KwaZulu-Natal conference.
“Even Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma can help us if she succeeds, but we don’t trust her because she is controlled by President (Jacob) Zuma, who is supporting Zikalala."
However, another aggrieved member said he did not trust that Ramaphosa would act against Zikalala’s leaders because “he (Ramaphosa) is a member of the current leadership, but we have not heard him saying anything to challenge the conference despite knowing about our complaint”.
Attempts to get hold of the ANC in KZN or its lawyers were unsuccessful.