The battle for the leadership of the troubled National Freedom Party (NFP), a key political party in the KwaZulu-Natal government of provincial unity (GPU), has erupted again after the faction that lost at the Pietermaritzburg High Court in May decided to take the battle to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
Part of the faction wants to set aside the ruling that confirmed Ivan Rowen Barnes as a lawfully elected president by the elective conference that was convened in December 2023 in Durban.
Appeal to remove Barnes
The conference paved the way for the Inkatha Freedom Party’s splinter party to contest the 2024 elections, where it won a seat in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature. Mbali Shinga was later named as the MEC for the Department of Social Development.
In the latest legal twist, Thabani Khumalo and Siphokazi Zukulu, supported by Nhlanhla Teddy Thwala, the former secretary-general who was later dethroned by Barnes, have filed papers to seek leave to appeal, saying another court may rule differently than acting Judge AJ Zwane.
The rest of the former applicants in the matter, like Simon Mlangeni, Felica Msomi and Amos Mthethwa, have not joined the appeal battle. This is despite them having been the first ones to legally challenge the election of Barnes and others.
Laying out their ground for appeal, they said the interim national executive committee (INEC) of the party should have been the one that facilitated the December 2023 elective conference. It was a lawful structure that was included in the memorandum of agreement (MOA) that was signed by all the factions within the party.
Quorum not met
“What is clear is that there were seven members of the INEC present at the time that the decision was taken to proceed to the 2023 conference. They were not nine as envisaged in the MOA… The MOA envisaged that all members of the INEC must be present when decisions are taken. The presence of only four (4) members at the time that the decision was taken to proceed to the 2023 conference fell short of the necessary quorum, being 50% plus one (1),” reads the papers of the appeal.
They also argued that Judge Zwane should have found that the voters’ roll that was used during the December 2023 elective conference was tampered with, as enough evidence was provided to him.
“The learned judge ought to have found that evidence exists that the voters’ roll was completed in manuscript. Whilst the issue of the Eastern Cape delegates was unresolved, none of those delegates complained about an infringement of their constitutional rights.
Conference not free and fair
“The learned judge ought to have found that the elective national conference of 2023 was not free and fair… The learned judge ought to have found that there were no internal remedies to exhaust once the results have been pronounced,” they added.
If the judge does not grant leave to appeal, the faction has the right to approach the appeal court in Bloemfontein directly.
