Durban - The ANC National Executive Committee’s (NEC) apparent dithering on whether or not to appeal against the Pietermaritzburg High Court’s judgment – deeming the 2015 KwaZulu-Natal elective conference unlawful – has been described as a crisis and a state of confusion.
The NEC held a special meeting in Pretoria on Friday with the discussion whether or not to appeal at the top of the agenda.
Gwede Mantashe, ANC secretary-general, said the party would make a decision in three days, this is now expected on Tuesday.
Political commentators said the events of Friday confirmed the ANC was in a serious governance crisis.
Constitutional Law expert Professor Shadrack Gutto said the ANC was in a confused state and could not provide a coherent view from the secretary-general’s office, the provincial executive committee (PEC) or even the NEC.
“It is in a period of serious crisis of governance within the party and I think that needs to be addressed. I don’t know how, because if they don’t the ANC is going to suffer seriously in the 2019 elections.”
Gutto said appealing would have a serious impact on the December conference.
“Time is running out for them to be able to review that judgment or send it for appeal and get a ruling before December. But whatever the appeal court ruling, acting on it could take place only much later", said Gutto.
If the appeals court affirmed the High Court decision, the ANC would be in a conundrum. It would need to correct the problems it was facing, before 2019.
Another political analyst, Professor Susan Booysen, said the NEC might be taking its time with making a decision because KZN was a highly contested area and there was ambiguity between the authority of the provincial and national body, despite the NEC being the highest decision making body.
“They have to maintain the peace and they have to try to get some peace going forward. There’s a lot of attempted reconciliation that they’re trying to map out. They are also looking at details of the legal aspects as well, as it is a pretty serious legal issue and they would have to make sure that they don’t throw away time and resources by appealing,” said Booysen.
It could be “very controversial” if the PEC decided to appeal and then lost, as they would have burned a lot of bridges.
Another political analyst, Imraan Buccus, said the dynamics in the province critically informed how the national dynamics played out, particularly in the lead-up to December.
“I think it (the NEC’s awaited decision) requires a great deal of deliberation and there probably is going to be a serious attempt by them to reach a political solution rather than go the route of appealing against the court’s decision.
“The NEC is taking a longer time in order to deliberate more and I would think that they would be moving towards seeking a political solution like was alluded to last week,” said Buccus.
Buccus doubted that the NEC would go the appeal route because the ramifications of that would be a lot more difficult to deal with.
Buccus said the political solution would be to form a Provincial Task Team (PTT) with the Senzo Mchunu and Sihle Zikalala camps accommodated in a power-sharing deal.
“The counter-argument from the Zikalala faction could be that you chose to go to court when we said let’s come together and talk about this, why should we not go the legal route in terms of the appeal,” Buccus said.
Mantashe on Friday said the party accepted the court’s judgment, but the NEC needed further consultation from legal counsel to gain clarity on rule 17.2.1 of the ANC constitution. This would determine if they would appeal or not.
Mantashe said the NEC had tasked the National Working Committee (NWC) to establish a strong, inclusive and unifying PTT which would be tasked with preparing for a provincial conference in KZN which had to take place within nine months.
“The NEC does not believe that the ANC should continue to give reasons to the court to intervene in matters of the organisation which should be managed politically by the organisation. The NEC must take charge of the challenges facing the movement and deal with them decisively,” Mantashe said.
Current ANC KZN secretary, Super Zuma said they respected the NEC’s stance.
“If there is a prospect of success then we will launch an appeal and if there is no prospect of success in an appeal a PTT will be put in place,” said Zuma.