Johannesburg - The EFF is embroiled in a bitter court battle where its "unemployed members" are paying two lawyers R500 000 each to nullify KwaZulu-Natal's second provincial conference, which was held in October last year.
This is contained in the party's organisational report, which revealed that the organisation's Ugu regional structure, which encompasses towns in the South Coast such as Margate and Port Shepstone, has taken it to court in an effort to nullify the EFF's provincial structure.
Godrich Gardee, the EFF's secretary-general who delivered the organisational report, confirmed the court challenge against the party on Saturday evening on the sidelines of its National People's Assembly, which is held at the Nasrec Expo Centre, south of Joburg.
Gardee, however, would not be drawn into revealing the exact nature of what the Ugu region was fighting about. He said the EFF would be defending the court challenge against it.
Gardee intimated that external forces were responsible for the court cases, blaming the ANC in KZN for leading this charge.
"In some instances, such court actions against the EFF, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal, you find that these are agent provocateurs, who have two senior counsels who don't come at less than R500 000 each," Gardee said.
"And you wonder how an unemployed member of the EFF can have such a high-powered legal representation. There is an indication that they are being properly financed by some tenderpreneurs of the ruling party," he added.
Gardee asserted that the EFF had opened criminal cases against these members, who allegedly forged deposit slips in the name of the party to supposedly check whether it had the necessary controls to deal with bogus deposits.
But Gardee said the EFF was not going to fall for those tricks.
"We have opened criminal cases against them because the very same people have actually provided, under oath, affidavits in court that they committed a crime against the EFF by forging quite a number of deposit slips.
"They say that they were trying the system. You know, a sting operation is not allowed in South Africa unless it is authorised by a magistrate or an officer of the law," he contended.
"So, parallel to their action that we are defending, we are actually opening criminal cases against them. And the bank, FNB, will be giving evidence in court that they don't know these deposit slips.
"You must read the court papers and see that they are criminals who are not needed in society," Gardee added.
He was removed from his secretary-general position shortly after revealing this intricate court battle with EFF members. Marshall Dlamini was elected unopposed as the new secretary-general.
The conference closes on Monday, December 16.
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