Deputy President Paul Mashatile has escaped sanction from the high court in the North West in a ruling that the complainants dubbed “judicial interference”.
Disgruntled members of the ANC took Mashatile to court after admitting to have submitted to the court a fake ANC’s NEC resolution which resulted in the adoption of the results of the North West ANC elective conference last year.
The ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) last year had filed papers to oppose an application by the aggrieved members to interdict the party’s elective conference. They said the interim provincial committee (IPC) did not have the authority to organise the conference because the NEC did not renew its mandate to remain in office and oversee the elective conference.
Opposing the application, the ANC made up a fake resolution of the NEC to defend itself against the failure to renew the term of the North-West IPC, and Mashatile, the then acting secretary general, made a false sworn statement under oath before the high court that his submissions were truthful.
He told the court that the NEC took and ratified decisions to extend the IPC’s term to perform the functions of the PEC at various meetings of the NEC between June 2020 and August 2022. Therefore, without challenging the NEC’s decisions to extend the IPC’s tenure, the extensions are considered valid and binding until set aside.
He said the application by the members was accordingly stillborn. He said due to the extensions, the IPC had the authority to exist, and the applicants needed to challenge the NEC’s decision.
However, the applicants said the NEC resolution dated July 2022 turned out to be a fake “copy and paste” of the previous resolution taken. Mashatile admitted this to be an error and apologised. Even after Mashatile admitted presenting the court with a dubious ANC NEC resolution, Judge Tebogo Djaje was unpersuaded.
In her ruling on Tuesday, Djaje said that the five complainants could not produce evidence that such a meeting did not take place.
“Their reliance on the calendar not reflecting a meeting on the said day is neither here nor there,” Djaje said .
“The argument by the applicants that the meeting or the resolution is suspicious, can also not be relevant without any substantiation by evidence.”
Djaje said the applicants as members of the ANC were fully aware of the expiry of the IPC office and the resolutions extending it. She said it was indisputable that they had done nothing since May 2020 until the eve of the conference.
“This was one of the reasons why the matter was struck off the roll due to lack of urgency.”
In addition, she said, the applicants never challenged the NEC resolution to extend the IPC term of office.
Sunday World learnt that the five complainants, namely Lebogang Medupe, Lesego Serapelwane, Puso Moeng, Sello Molefe, and Itumeleng Moswane will appeal the ruling.
Close sources said it was “astounding”, given that Mashatile had conceded that his submission of an ANC NEC meeting held on 4 July 2022, which extended the IPC term to August 2022, was in error.
On February 7 the complainants wrote to North West Judge President Ronald Hendricks, citing that they harboured a reasonable apprehension of bias on Djaje’s part.
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