ANC faces fresh court threat over Buffalo City councillor nominations

Luthuli House, ANC headquarters, may again be dragged to court for violating its own rules on the selection of councillor candidates in Buffalo City metro in the Eastern Cape, where the selection process was said to have been manipulated by the ANC’s higher structures.

It is alleged the party has flouted the councillor candidate selection process in the municipality, with irate branch members from the WB Rubusana region claiming members who were nominated had their names removed.

They are demanding that the party comply with its nomination guidelines and stop rigging the numbers.

Branch members challenge nomination process

In a letter sent by his lawyers, Sinawo Makangela of Makangela Mtungani Inc, to ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula on Monday, a concerned member, Lwazi Rotya, cited several violations of the ANC’s guidelines and asked Mbalula to address them or face legal action.

Rotya said although nominations had been done, they excluded the legitimate provincial executive committee and that councillor candidates’ nomination meetings did not take place.

Rotya cited ward 20 in Buffalo City metro, where a community meeting involving branch members also failed to sit.

He claimed this was not an isolated incident and that throughout the Rubusana region, community and branch meetings to select candidates did not happen.

Previous court victories against Luthuli House

If this matter goes to court, it will be the third encounter between Rotya and Luthuli House.

In March, Rotya obtained an interdict to stop the ANC Eastern Cape provincial conference, citing violations of the ANC constitution and nomination guidelines and the country’s constitution.

He claimed some members were excluded from exercising their rights to participate in party activities.

The court subsequently interdicted the provincial conference, forcing the party to abandon it.

Later, after the expiry of the provincial executive committee (PEC) term in May, Luthuli House appointed an interim provincial task team to replace the PEC, a move that Rotya and others challenged in the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda, which declared the provincial task team’s (PTT) appointment unlawful.

Court ruled ANC structures acted unlawfully

The court declared the ANC decision to replace the disbanded PEC with the PTT as unconstitutional, as it was in breach of Section 19 of the constitution.

The appointment was also unlawful because it breached the applicants’ contractual rights with the ANC under its constitution and violated the party’s guidelines governing branch general meetings, branch biennial general meetings and provincial and national conferences.

In delivering the judgment in June, the judge reprimanded the ANC for its conduct in opposing the interdict application lodged against the PTT decision.

Mbalula recently reinstated the disbanded PEC, whose term had expired in May, opening the door to another possible legal challenge.

Buffalo City candidate list under pressure

The episode emanated from an alleged violation of ANC guidelines for branch nominations before the March provincial conference.

The bone of contention was that the conference was organised, even though grievances and appeals made by many branches were not resolved through the ANC appeals process, an issue Rotya believed would exclude them and others from participating in the conference.

Now, Luthuli House could go the same route with the selection of councillor candidates which, if declared unlawful and void by the court, could give the party little time to restart the process.

This could mean it misses the deadline to submit its Buffalo City candidates’ list to the Electoral Commission of South Africa.

Responding this week to rumours that this group intends to leave the ANC and that their actions were meant to destroy the party, Rotya said this was not the intention.