AFTER almost the entire day of being derailed by a court interdict, the Gauteng provincial elective conference got underway late Saturday, 25 June afternoon.
The conference was adjourned on Friday night after it was decided that due to the lengthy debate it would take to adopt it, the matter be parked for the night.
When they resumed in the morning of Saturday, the conference was slapped with an interdict forcing the provincial executive committee into a crisis meeting as well as the steering committee.
The derailment followed the National Executive Committee sending the matter back to the PEC after an unprecedented move by the highest decision-making structure of the GP governing party called a special meeting to discuss a regional conference matter.
After deliberations, the outgoing chairperson and premier David Makhura announced that the party will oppose the interdict in court while the conference continued with the business of the conference.
The matter was set to be heard at the Joburg High Court at 6.30 pm and party lawyers were expected to argue against the opposition physically in court.
“We confirm that we have seen the court papers filed by one delegate, and those court papers are about interdicting the conference and the others issue about reviewing the PEC and NEC decisions.”
“I want to confirm that the ANC is going to defend. From where we are the conference is continuing, we will our case and I want to put it clear that provincial and national executive committees are working together to make sure we will defend," said Makhura.
Makhura said the party constitution was clear on the matter and clarifies which matters are to be dealt with by the NEC and those that should be handled by the regional and provincial structures. The PEC had resolved that the 19 delegates whose votes were quarantined at the Ekurhuleni conference would be allowed to participate and vote but their votes will be also quarantined until the matter is resolved by the incoming PEC.
In court papers, the disgruntled member Jabulani Derick Sithole is challenging the NEC's decision to refer the matter to the PEC and the provincial leadership's decision to continue with the conference without resolving the matter.
Provincial secretary Jacob Khawe said while the lawyers would be busy arguing the case, the conference will go ahead and receive the organisational report, and the financial report as well as adopt the credentials.
