Cape Town - A National Freedom Party (NFP) leader in the Western Cape is taking the party’s parliamentary leader to court over what he called the abuse of power.
Granville Carlson accused Shaik Emam of having used his position of power in the portfolio of police, justice and corrections to unlawfully detain him and to evade a disciplinary hearing over a series of allegations.
Carlson was out on parole for a murder he committed while he was 17 years old. He said Emam reported to the authorities that he violated his parole conditions.
“I spent 14 months in prison and now I want to sue him for using his power to get me back in jail.”
It is not clear how Carlson got membership from the party, as the party’s constitution prohibits someone convicted of a schedule six offence from joining the party.
“I declared to the NFP that I'm on parole they accepted me wholeheartedly and I am part of the National Working Committee. Ever since I was released from prison I have been living an honest life”
For years NFP has had warring factions. Its conference was successfully challenged in court. There are two groups that claim to be legitimate leaders of the party.
They have two seats in Parliament. The party went on down spiral ever since the death of its leader the late Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi suffered a stroke.
There were claims of her signatures being forged on papers.
Emam said he assisted Carlson to get him out of prison on parole when he was asked to write a motivational letter and now he is ungrateful.
“This is just to tarnish my name,” he said. “There are two factions within the party then more factions within the two factions. They have been trying for years to take me out of parliament.”
He said the matter between him and Carlson is complicated and that he regrets assisting him.
“A lot of things happened, he is being used by people who want me out. We are trying to sort the mess we are in and hold a conference so that we can have party leadership.”
Canaan Mdletshe who says the party’s secretary general said they were aware of the fight between the two but the party does not want to get involved. “The organisation does not want to get involved. We do, however, believe that Carlson should have not spent time in jail because of the tension.”
He said there was no disciplinary hearing against their parliamentary leader. “What I can confirm is that there was a case opened against him and we did not want to jump to the conclusion that he is guilty.”
He declined to comment on whether the party faced challenges of factions and said those are internal matters.
Weekend Argus