KZN ANC members who took party to court will be disciplined

Disciplinary action will be instituted against members of the ANC who took the party's KwaZulu-Natal provincial structure to court.

After disgruntled members obtained an interdict in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Friday to prevent the party’s provincial elective conference from taking place‚ provincial coordinator Sihle Zikalala told journalists that they would hold the culprits to account.

"The view generally from all the delegates that were here is that they have tasked us to institute disciplinary action against these members - we are clear on that. We will then the check the conditions under which these comrades took the ANC to court‚" said Zikalala.

He was speaking to members of the media on Saturday at the University of Zululand‚ following a closed plenary session with delegates after a decision to postpone the conference in the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Zikalala‚ who was expected to again win the elective conference uncontested‚ said that the delegates also adopted a resolution for the next conference to take place in six weeks to elect new leadership‚ but only if the ANC national executive committee agreed.

He said that the reason the provincial conference needed to be held urgently was to prepare themselves for the 2019 national elections.

"The issue is that‚ objectively‚ you need stability when you go to elections. You need leadership with authority [and] powers‚ not delegated powers but powers from elected structures from the ANC‚" he said.

Yesterday‚ a last-minute application was made by ANC members from the Harry Gwala‚ Lower South Coast‚ Moses Mabhida and UKhahlamba regions to halt the conference.

The court granted an interim order halting the re-run of the 2015 elective conference which was declared unlawful by the court in September last year.

The provincial task team (PTT) that had disbanded and replaced the provincial executive committee led by Zikalala who was elected chairperson‚ had on Wednesday met with branch representative in Pietermaritzburg‚ but rejected their complaints and decided to go ahead with the conference.

Zikalala indicated that they would be challenging the court’s decision to interdict the conference and would file court papers in the coming week.

Zikalala said that he didn't agree with using the courts to resolve party issues as it undermined the highest decision-making body of the party‚ the national executive committee.

He also took a swipe at NEC member Bheki Cele who last year encouraged disgruntled members of the party to take the ANC to court.

Cele was addressing branches in Umlazi‚ south of Durban‚ in August ahead of last year's bruising court case which resulted in the 2015 provincial conference being nullified after several alleged irregularities were cited.

Turning to his continued support of former president Jacob Zuma's court cases‚ Zikalala said that the NEC had given their members the right to attend‚ so long as it was in their personal capacity.

- SowetanLIVE