ConCourt slates Free State ANC
2012-12-18 12:24
Johannesburg - In a judgment released on Tuesday morning,
the Constitutional Court found that there were irregularities in the lead-up to
the ANC’s Free State provincial conference.
Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke said the
irregularities violated ANC members’ rights to participate in the party
according to its constitution.
However, this will not affect the participation of Free
State’s 324 delegates at the ANC’s Mangaung national conference, said Moseneke.
Six ANC Free State members took the party to court to contest
the provincial conference, which they said featured delegates who should not
have attended. Despite their claims, the conference received the blessing of
the ANC leadership.
The Free State
applicants may now seek an urgent interdict to halt the participation of
members from the province, but the judgment is likely to confirm the decision
of the ANC’s NEC. It chose to halt the participation of the Free State
provincial executive committee, but let other delegates vote in the ANC’s
elective conference Mangaung.
As a cautionary
measure, the Free State delegates at the conference voted on different-coloured
ballots in case the court’s judgment on Tuesday invalidated their
participation.
- Newsfire
