ANC North West hangs in balance over Mangaung participation

Mahikeng, 14 December 2012 at 20h45:  There were jubilant tweets and cheers from pro-Zuma ANC members, after judgement was reserved in the North West High Court, where an urgent interdict to prohibit the registration of some 230 provincial delegates from attending the ruling party’s 53rd elective conference was heard on 14 December 2012.

A group of ANC members from the North West brought the legal action against the leadership of the ruling party on Wednesday 12 December 2012, after Jacob Zuma was named the province’s choice for party leader. The application for the interdict was postponed until Friday 14 December 2012, because the ANC wasn’t present in court. But when the court reconvened, it became the stage for an extended show-down between lawyers for the ANC, and a legal team representing a group of party members who disputed Zuma’s nomination. After a long day judgement was reserved “until the dispute was settled by Luthuli House,” a North West ANC insider told NewsFire.

Another insider said the ANC was advised by the court to exhaust internal processes while judgment is pending. An ANC dispute committee was to decide on Saturday on whether the full North West delegation, including the disputed group would be allowed into the national conference starting on Sunday.

The Mail & Guardian reported http://mg.co.za/article/2012-12-11-anc-north-west-branches-in-court-bid-to-stop-mangaung-delegation earlier that it had seen a letter that was addressed to former provincial secretary Kabelo Mataboge from a local law firm called Semaushu Attorneys which stated that the province’s nomination bid was "flawed” and therefore rendered the entire elective process “unlawful".

"We are therefore instructed to inform your good office not [to] continue with further processes, as branches intent [sic] challenging validity of the said process," the legal correspondence read. The SABC reported that Mataboge was suspended by the ANC.

Mataboge survived an assassination attempt mere hours before the North West provincial nominations took place. The former NW ANC secretary was driving home after a meeting to try and resolved disputes about where to hold the nominations when he was fired at fourteen times.

In another attack in the province, Kennet Kaunda region's ANC secretary, 33-year-old Abuti David Chika was shot and killed outside his home in Klerksdorp on the morning of Friday 14 December 2012. He was shot in the stomach but was certified dead upon arriving at the local hospital.

During campaigning for Mangaung, tensions in the NW ran high because of a violent feud between pro-Zuma and pro-Kgalema Motlanthe factions. Those in support of Motlanthe accused the ANC of vote-rigging, irregularities and police interference, which they say ensured Zuma’s success at the provincial conference.

Disgruntled ANC insiders told NewsFire earlier that they would attempt to take over the Mangaung elective conference as part of a push to ‘save the ANC’. The sentiment was that excluded and jilted ANC members ‘had nothing to lose’, given they were already living with the threat of violence or death continually because of their chosen political position.

As the pro-Zuma ANC faction packed their car to set off for Mangaung they tweeted:

@Funzi_MaRzr: “#ANCNW Application dismissed. Both sets of delegates (#zuma's in majority) now must pack for a trip to #Mangaung”; and @KaraboKbmags: “We have won Mangaung here we come”. DM