PTT replaced expired PEC after Mabuyane-Ngcukayitobi feud, but applicants say task team sidelines members and defies judicial authority.
The Eastern Cape ANC and its national headquarters at Luthuli House are once again facing off in court.
Three dissatisfied members have approached the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda seeking to nullify the party’s newly imposed interim provincial task team (PTT) and to have all its decisions declared invalid.
3 members ask high court to nullify interim task team
The PTT was initiated by Luthuli House to replace the expired provincial executive committee, but more so to address an internal squabble between two principal heavyweights, chair Oscar Mabuyane and sidelined provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi.
The 44-member PTT, announced early last month, was appointed by the ANC national executive committee (NEC) to replace the provincial executive committee (PEC) whose term had expired in May.
Mabuyane was named convener, with Eastern Cape provincial legislature speaker Helen Sauls August as coordinator while Ngcukayitobe was demoted from a full-time position.
But applicants Lwazi Rotya, a Ward 24 branch member in the Dr WB Rubusana region, and two colleagues from other branches and regions, argue the PTT appointment is unconstitutional and infringes their rights as members in good standing.
The applicants contend the NEC’s decision violates section 19 of the national constitution, which guarantees freedom of association, as well as their membership contractual rights under the ANC constitution.
Move disregards party guidelines
They argue the move disregards party guidelines governing branch general meetings and elective conferences at regional, provincial and national levels.
More significantly, they say the appointment of the PTT breached an interim court order they had secured on 26 March.
That order interdicted the holding of the ANC’s 10th provincial conference, which was scheduled to begin on 27 March at the ICC in KuGompo City.
The conference was postponed indefinitely and effectively abandoned, with the PTT installed in place of the PEC.
The applicants have asked the court to interdict the PTT from acting as a legitimate structure, presiding over meetings, or representing the province in any ANC activity at national or provincial or any level.
Mbalula defends decision as ‘rational and reasonable’
In his answering affidavit, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula defended the NEC’s decision, describing it as “rational and reasonable”.
He said the NEC acted on 13 May after prolonged internal conflict paralysed the province’s functioning. The PTT was mandated to discharge the powers of the PEC until a lawful and properly constituted provincial conference could be convened to elect new leadership.
Mbalula stressed that the intervention was temporary and could not exceed nine months. He said that members of the dissolved PEC were included in the PTT, among them former provincial secretary Ngcukayitobi.
However, he did not explain why Ngcukayitobi was relegated to the role of additional member rather than retaining his previous powerful position.
Mbalula dismissed Rotya’s application as lacking urgency, saying any urgency was “self-created and contrived” to prejudice the ANC’s work and stability.
Mbalula dismisses application
The applicants want the court to review and set aside the NEC’s appointment of the PTT, declaring all decisions taken since its establishment unlawful and of no force or effect.
They argue the PTT was created to achieve the same outcomes their earlier application had sought against the holding of the provincial conference – outcomes they had successfully interdicted in March.
Rotya and his co applicants insist that by appointing the PTT, the ANC effectively circumvented the KuGompo court order, undermining both their rights and the authority of the judiciary.
The case highlights ongoing tensions within the Eastern Cape ANC, where factional battles have repeatedly spilled into the courts.
The province, one of the party’s largest membership bases, has been central to national succession debates and internal power struggles.