KZN ANC hangs on appeal word

The fate of the ANC's KwaZulu-Natal leadership is still not known, and has again been left in the hands of Pietermaritzburg High Court judges, who will now decide whether they must vacate office or not.

Judgment was reserved yesterday in the appeal application by the provincial ANC leadership to stop the nullification of its provincial elective conference of November 2015.

This followed a ruling in September in the same court that declared the conference null and void, a ruling the ANC appealed against.

ANC lawyer Greg Harpur argued before judges Piet Koen, Charmaine Balton and Mahendra Chetty that removing the current executive committee from office would cause irreparable damage.

However, the original applicants, represented by senior counsels Wim Trengove and Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, argued that, in fact, they were the ones who had suffered irreparable damage.

Ngcukaitobi argued that the PEC's non-compliance with the original ruling was causing damage to their clients.

"The court ruled that the decisions taken at the conference, including the election of the current leadership, was unlawful.

"The current PEC has no right to be in office. They should vacate the office," he said.

Ngcukaitobi said it appeared the ANC's tactic was to drag the matter on until the so-called "rebels", who lodged the case against their parent body, lost interest.

ANC councillor Lawrence Dube, who brought the original case to the Pietermaritzburg High Court, said outside the court there had been huge damage done by the PEC, including the rigging of branch nominations and failure to sort out disputes.

"Bringing this application was to cause more delays," he said.

Also present in court was ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, who would not comment.

"I'm only here because the NEC is one of the respondents," she said.

Duarte hugged and interacted with both factions inside court.