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While the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) in North West is planning to recall four mayors and four speakers, the expelled chairperson of the portfolio committee on community safety and transport management, Mmoloki Cwaile, has served the party with court papers after an attempt was made to block him from reporting for work this week.
In what has been described as a purge, the party’s provincial top structure instructed the regional executive committee (REC) of Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality to recall the executive mayor of the region, Khumalo Molefe; the mayor of Mahikeng Local Municipality, Tshepiso Mphehlo; the mayor of Tswaing Local Municipality, Norah Mahlangu; and the mayor of Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality, Dina Pitso.
The REC delivered the message to recall the four mayors during a meeting held in Ramotshere Moiloa last Saturday.
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In Bojanala, the PEC instructed the REC to recall Rustenburg speaker Koketso Mogomotsi, Moses Kotane speaker Gugu Mtshali and mayoral committee member Thapelo Thoboke.
Insiders say all the people cited have written to provincial secretary Louis Diremelo and copied the secretary-general of the ANC, Fikile Mbalula, challenging the PEC’s decision.
While other members are still following the party’s processes, Cwaile – who was expelled last week after being found guilty of four counts of misconduct – has taken the court route, asking it to issue an interdict against the PEC’s attempt to remove him from his position in the legislature.
In court papers seen by City Press, Cwaile indicated that there had been several attempts to block him from reporting for duty since the disciplinary verdict was delivered last week.
City Press reported last week that he and eight expelled councillors had informed that party that they were appealing the decision by the provincial disciplinary committee to expel them.
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In an interview with City Press last week, Cwaile said he would not be taking the ANC to court, but would fight his expulsion through its structures and processes. However, following the efforts to block him from reporting for duty, he opted for the legal route.
He wants the judgment that resulted in his expulsion for 10 years to be declared unlawful and set aside.
In his court papers, he argued that the PEC had been trying to execute the sanction despite his pending appeal: “I file this review as provided for in rule 25.38 of the ANC constitution, as amended and adopted by the 54th national conference at Nasrec, Johannesburg 2017.
In particular, this rule provides that any member found guilty by a disciplinary committee shall have the right, within 21 days from the date of the public announcement of the ruling and sanction, to apply to review the decision of the disciplinary committee concerned to the next higher disciplinary committee.”
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He argued that, although the judgment had been effective as of May 2, it had not been dated when it was handed down.
Cwaile said the hearing that resulted in the judgment was conducted in his absence.
“I therefore could not plead to the charges against me.
While the judgment details what transpired on various days prior to the default hearing on April 15 2023, it itself does not record when and how I pleaded to charges, alternatively whether the second respondent [Hoffman Galeng] entered a plea of not guilty on my behalf and thereafter allowed the first respondent [the ANC] to present its case,” read Cwaile’s court papers.
He argued that the charges did not fall under the category of any of the rules for which, if found guilty, he would be ineligible to be or remain as a member of the ANC and would be expelled from the organisation.
Cwaile said these were the reasons that the judgment needed to be reviewed and set aside.
He was charged with four counts of misconduct emanating from the provincial conference in August, including of having attended it when he was not supposed to. However, in his representation, he indicated that he had been legally nominated by the branch to represent it at the conference.
NONCOMPLIANCE
Cwaile argued that he had not been given enough time to prepare his defence against the nature and type of evidence that the ANC’s PEC intended to use against him at the hearing.
“I could not have prepared myself against the charges against me without the benefit of perusing the evidence against me. This constitutes a gross irregularity in the proceedings. The second respondent’s judgment therefore stands to be reviewed and set aside,” he stated.
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He added that the failure of the chairperson of the disciplinary committee to force the ANC to participate in the pre-hearing conference, as instructed, or alternatively conduct the pre-hearing in his capacity as chairperson with a view to finalising the matter expeditiously, also constituted a gross irregularity.
“More so in that, in the pre-hearing conference, I would have had an opportunity to provide details of any preliminary points that I wanted to raise at the disciplinary proceedings, rather than raising them for the first time in the hearing,” he stated.
