The party survived a court interdict scare which would have potentially affected the proceedings of the conference. On Thursday afternoon, a High Court judge struck an application off the roll, which was made on an urgent basis by a group of disgruntled ANC members.

ALSO READ: #ANCvsANC: Disgruntled group's court application dealt a blow

The party’s provincial Communication Manager, Mothusi Shupinyane, tells OFM News that the continuation of the conference looks set to elect additional PEC members and to also have discussions around the policy position of the party going to December's National Conference. Shupinyane adds that these policies will be thoroughly looked at and assessed, as to whether they benefit the people of the province.

The ANC’s National spokesperson, Pule Mabe, in a statement says this is yet again another living testimony that the ANC has put in place tight measures to ensure the credibility of its processes.

“The latest court outcome further confirms the level of prudence applied by the Secretary-General’s Office under the stewardship of the Treasurer-General, comrade Paul Mashatile, in conducting overall organisational work. We call on all members of the ANC to exercise discipline and rally behind the outcome of the conference,” Mabe says.

He adds that, to date, the ANC has successfully concluded six provincial conferences in Limpopo, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, and Gauteng, whilst the North West will be in session and reconvene this weekend to conclude with the election of the additional members of the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) and deal with any other outstanding business of the conference.

The Free State is yet to hold its provincial conference. The party’s Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) has since confirmed that it will hold its conference in Bloemfontein next month.

In July, disgruntled ANC members dragged the party’s IPC to the Bloemfontein-based High Court on a matter of urgency. At the time, the ANC Branch 29 Secretary in Mangaung, Ditaba Mokhutle, told OFM News that they were seeking a court judgment against the IPC to be dissolved. He said several factors have since ignited the court move and those include the failure to prepare and organise a provincial party conference.

ALSO READ: #ANCvsANC: IPC taken to Free State court

But in a twist of events in court, the IPC and the disgruntled members then struck a deal. Included in one of the three settlement agreements between the ANC IPC and Secretaries of the Free State ANC branches in the High Court, was the disbandment of the controversial Mangaung Interim Regional Committee (IRC).

ALSO READ: #ANCvsANC: IPC, irate members settle in court

However, the disgruntled group of ANC members then later again made a U-turn and took the party to court for allegedly violating a court order but the case against the party was dismissed, with costs by the Free State High Court.

OFM News