The latest Eastern Cape High Court judgment delivered on Thursday has gone beyond being just a legal defeat to be a devastating political indictment of the judgment, discipline and constitutional stewardship exercised under secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, who is the respondent.
The court has dismissed the application for leave to appeal brought by the ANC, Mbalula and the Provincial Task Team (PTT), rejected the central grounds advanced, identified contradictions in the ANC’s own case, and awarded costs against the applicants.
ANC plunged in crisis of credibility
Consequently, the judgement itself leaves Africa’s oldest liberation movement facing a crisis of credibility, especially in how it runs its own affairs.
The operative order is blunt:
“The two applications for leave to appeal (by the ANC and the PTT respectively) are dismissed with costs.”
“The section 18(2) application is dismissed with costs.”
That is an order of a court of law.
The judgment follows the court’s earlier finding that the announcement and appointment of the Eastern Cape PTT breached the country’s constitution, violated the ANC’s own constitution and guidelines, and produced decisions that were unlawful, invalid and of no force or effect.
The appointed members were interdicted from holding themselves out as the PTT or representing the province in ANC structures.
The latest judgment makes the institutional failure even more damaging.
On the devastating judgment, Judge Vuyokazi Noncembu observed: “I find it quite telling that the PTT takes no issue with the court’s findings on the merits of the matter.”
That observation by a judge of the high court should alarm every disciplined member of the ANC.
The appeal attack focused substantially on the form and effect of the orders rather than confronting the underlying merits that produced the invalidation.
‘No real disputes of fact’
Even more damaging was the court’s treatment of the alleged disputes of fact.
Noncembu charged: “The difficulty I have with this argument is that it refers to material disputes of fact which were in existence in the matter and yet fails to state what those disputes of fact are.”
The judgement then concluded that “the true state of the matter, however, is that there were no real disputes of fact that arose in the matter, as the matter was decided solely on the interpretation of the ANC constitution”.
‘ANC fell foul of own constitution’
Simply put, this was not a case lost because the evidence was unknowable or because competing factual versions made adjudication impossible. It turned principally on whether the ANC complied with its own constitution, which it did not according to the court.
The Court was equally uncompromising when the ANC argued that material averments had not been considered as the judge asserted that “this cannot be further from the truth”.
It expressly referred to deficiencies and contradictions inherent in the ANC’s own version.
Then came the contradiction concerning the Provincial Executive Committee.
The court recorded that the PEC had never been dissolved and that both the ANC and PTT initially maintained this position.
ANC insists PEC had been dissolved
However, the ANC later relied on an extract of NEC minutes to contend that the PEC had been dissolved. The judgment says the ANC was “later contradicting itself in this regard.”
The court also rejected an attempt to reformulate the case at the appeal stage.
“This court notes the attempt by the ANC to recast their case in the leave to appeal application by stating that it was necessary for the PTT to be installed as the PEC was dysfunctional,” Noncembu goes on.
“That, unfortunately, was not the case they presented in the main application and, therefore, cannot be raised for the first time in the leave to appeal application.”
Final nail in the PTT coffin
The central judicial conclusion was fatal: “The ultimate ruling of the court was premised on the finding that the ANC had failed to satisfy the jurisdictional requirements for the appointment of the PTT as provided for in rule 12.2.4 of its constitution.
“I am unable to find that the applicants have satisfied the test of establishing reasonable prospects of success on appeal in the matter.”
And with that the attempt to appeal the matter was gone out the window, putting a final nail in the PTT coffin.
Who misled the ANC NEC?
The political questions are now unavoidable. Who advised the Mbalula, the Luthuli House “boss” in charge of the former liberation movement’s administration, that this intervention complied with the ANC constitution?
Why was the ANC NEC misled to arrive at this unlawful decision?
Who authorised the appointment of the PTT despite the absence of the jurisdictional requirements later identified by the Court?
Who approved litigation resting on contradictory positions?
Who must account for the legal costs imposed on the organisation?
Who misled the ANC NEC, the highest decision-making body in between conferences to arrive at such a decision that has been now declared unlawful and its appeal application dismissive so devastating?
Optics bad for Mbalula
And how can the Mbalula demand discipline from branches, regions and provinces when decisions associated with his office have repeatedly failed the elementary test of compliance with the ANC’s own supreme governing document, the ANC constitution?
Mbalula has lost all high court cases in the Eastern Cape this year, including one that interdicted the convening of the provincial conference citing questionable verification reports from Luthuli House.
The political consequences of the conduct examined by the court is unmistakable in that the ANC has been dragged into expensive litigation, its internal decisions have been judicially invalidated, and its own version has been exposed as contradictory.
Mbalula’s credibility has, therefore, not been brought into question by his political opponents but by the record placed before the court, the arguments advanced in his name, by himself through legal teams and the judgment delivered against them.
The ANC now faces a stark choice of either to defend the indefensible or restore organisational integrity through accountability.
Court losses chip away at ANC’s credibility
Because the head of administration and boss of day-to-day running of the organisation cannot convincingly demonstrate fidelity to the ANC constitution, the crisis is at the centre of the organisation itself and in the office of the secretary-general.
Whether these administrative blunders are due to 2027 ANC National Conference ambition or otherwise, only time will tell but one thing is for sure – losing one high court case after another is eating ANC’s credibility and already battered political legitimacy peace meal.
- The Eastern Cape High Court dismissed the ANC, Fikile Mbalula, and the Provincial Task Team's application for leave to appeal, awarding costs against them.
- The court found that the appointment of the Eastern Cape PTT breached both the South African constitution and the ANC's constitution, rendering its decisions unlawful and invalid.
- Judge Vuyokazi Noncembu noted there were no real disputes of fact, and the case was decided solely on the interpretation of the ANC constitution.
- The court highlighted contradictions in the ANC's stance, including the contradictory claims about whether the Provincial Executive Committee had been dissolved.
- Fikile Mbalula has lost all high court cases in the Eastern Cape this year related to ANC internal matters, seriously damaging his credibility and the ANC's organisational integrity.
