By Thapelo Molefe
The African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has urged party member Lwazi Rotya to hold off on further legal action as the party faces a fresh challenge in the Eastern Cape over its councillor candidate selection process.
Rotya is challenging the ANC’s decision to proceed with its candidate nomination process, arguing that the party has failed to properly account for a High Court judgment that declared its Eastern Cape provincial task team (PTT) unlawful.
His latest threat of legal action comes months after he successfully stopped the ANC from proceeding with its Eastern Cape provincial elective conference.
It was during that earlier dispute that Rotya became known as “Tsunami”. Mbalula had said at the time that only a “tsunami” could prevent the conference from taking place. Rotya then obtained a court interdict stopping the conference.
In a letter sent to Mbalula and ANC electoral committee chairperson Kgalema Motlanthe this week, Rotya’s lawyers, Makangela Inc, raised concerns about the party’s councillor nomination process.
The lawyers said the process had been conducted without the involvement of the Eastern Cape provincial leadership, despite the implications of the 18 June Makhanda High Court judgment.
They argued that the process was conducted “to the exclusion of the leadership of the Eastern Cape province as pronounced by the high court”.
The lawyers also accused the ANC of failing to follow its own candidate-selection rules.
According to the letter, some branch and community meetings required as part of the nomination process were allegedly not held or were conducted improperly.
Rotya has not immediately approached the courts, but his lawyers warned that legal proceedings could follow if the ANC does not address the concerns.
The letter said failure to deal with issues raised by ANC members “will inevitably lead to unnecessary legal action at the instance of our clients”.
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Rotya said he was still prepared to resolve the dispute through negotiations.
“We are still open for negotiations with the ANC,” he said.
“We are going to play the long arm, even if the deadline is Friday, but court cases are not going away. So we are not in a hurry; we are not worried.”
He said discussions with the party could still produce a solution.
“We are willing to negotiate with the leadership of the ANC to find solutions in terms of all these issues,” Rotya said.
“We remain hopeful that the negotiations will take place before the deadline of Friday.”
The ANC has not accepted the allegations.
Mbalula, through the party attorneys SM Patel Inc, acknowledged Rotya’s letter and said the party was consulting its internal structures before responding in detail.
The ANC also asked Rotya’s lawyers not to take further action while those consultations were under way.
The party said its decision not to respond to each allegation immediately should not be viewed as an admission of wrongdoing.
“In the interim, our client does not intend to engage the allegations on a piecemeal basis, particularly whilst the relevant information and organisational processes remain under consideration,” the ANC said.
The dispute is linked to the ANC’s prolonged leadership crisis in the Eastern Cape.
The party reinstated its provincial executive committee after a number of court setbacks involving the PTT, which had removed provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi from the provincial leadership structure.
Ngcukayitobi was regarded as a leading challenger to provincial chairperson Oscar Mabuyane before the provincial conference was interdicted.
Rotya is understood to have supported efforts for Ngcukayitobi to take over the provincial leadership.
The legal dispute now comes as the ANC works to complete its list of more than 10,000 candidates for the 4 November local government elections.
Another issue in the candidate process has been the requirement that councillors have matric.
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The ANC electoral committee rejected formal waiver applications from candidates who do not have matric, saying none of those seeking exemptions met the criteria for exceptional consideration.
However, candidates without matric were allowed to continue in the process if they signed a pledge to obtain matric or an accredited NQF level 4 qualification within 12 months of becoming councillors.
The deadline for signing the pledge ended on Tuesday, as the ANC’s national executive committee considered the final candidate list.
In a letter dated August 24, the electoral committee said none of the candidates seeking waivers met the criteria for exceptional consideration.
