JUDGMENT has been reserved in the case in which suspended ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule is seeking to have his suspension from the party set aside.
Magashule’s legal team, led by Advocate Dali Mpofu SC, tried to nullify the party’s rule 25.70.
Mpofu also asked the court to declare the party’s step aside resolution as unconstitutional and invalid.
Magashule was suspended from the ANC in accordance with section 25.70 of the ANC Constitution.
His legal team argued on Thursday that Magashule’s suspension was a factional purge of Ramaphosa’s opponents within the ANC, arguing that rule 25.7 was an unacceptable narrowing of the resolutions of the party’s 2017 Nasrec conference resolutions.
Magashule is also asking the court to find the suspension letter he issued to party president Cyril Ramaphosa valid.
Magashule’s legal team argued that Section 25.70 “is out of sync with the provisions of both the Constitution of the Republic and the relevant provisions of the ANC constitution, more particularly as it violates both rules of national (sic) justice and, more importantly, the presumption of innocence”.
Magashule further questioned the decision taken by the ANC national executive committee (NEC) to suspend him, arguing that the NEC unlawfully “narrowed” the scope of a resolution taken at the NASREC conference that, “ANC leaders and members who are alleged to be involved in corrupt activities, should, where necessary step aside until their names are cleared”.
He argued that by doing so the ANC NEC “amended” the conference resolution, something it does not have the power to do.
Magashule was temporarily suspended from the ANC after he failed to step aside from his position following his corruption charges.
Magashule, along with other accomplices, faces serious criminal charges in the Bloemfontein High Court relating to a R255 million asbestos audit tender when he was the Free State’s Premier.
Lawyer Wim Trengrove, counsel for ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa and the party’s Deputy Secretary-General Jessie Duarte, disputed Magashule’s argument that the party’s step-aside regime, as adopted by its Nasrec conference in 2017, had been unlawfully narrowed down by the NEC.
He cited a judgment from the Constitutional Court that held that where a suspension was precautionary rather than punitive there was no need to afford the suspended person a hearing.
Trengrove further argued that Magashule was afforded a hearing by the ANC’s Integrity Commission.
He said Magashule was in fact himself part of the decision that led to his suspension.
He said Magashule had been given a chance to state his side of the story at a meeting of the party’s top six officials at Ramaphosa’s house on the eve of his suspension.
Trengove said the suspended Secretary-General mistakenly argued his suspension was invalid because he felt he hadn’t been given a fair hearing.
“This is an extraordinary case where the suspended employee was not merely afforded an opportunity to state his case, which is what (the legal principle of audi alteram partem) requires, but that he was in this unusual position where he actively participated in the decision-making process, in the decision-making structures they took the decision that culminated in his suspension,” argued Trengrove.
High Court Judge Jody Kollapen says he understands that the matter was brought to the court on an urgent basis, but as the presiding officers over this matter they’ll come back soon with the judgment.
He said the court will try to finalize the matter sooner rather than later.
“We commit ourselves to doing it as quickly as possible, mindful that the application raises weighty issues of law. You can be assured that we will discharge our duties without fear or favour or prejudice,” said Kollapen.
– Inside Politics
