ANC wins first round in battle against Boy Mamabolo
POLITICS
ANC member Boy Mamabolo’s bid to force the governing party to put his name higher on the province's national list in Limpopo has suffered a major setback. This after the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg dismissed his case with cost on Tuesday for lack of urgency.
Mamabolo approached the high court on an urgent basis two weeks ago to challenge his omission from the list of parliamentary candidates from Limpopo, arguing that the decision was unlawful because he was legitimately elected as one of the candidates for the National Assembly by 240 branches of the ANC.
He blamed his omission on factionalism in the party. In his court application, Mamabolo states that he wants the ANC to rescind its decision to remove his name from the list of candidates and furnish him with the full list of nominations from various branches and the book of forms for the branches.
Mamabolo said that by removing his name, the party infringed on his constitutional right to participate in public office.
He argued in court papers:
I respectfully submit that the ANC’s further conduct regarding my name constituted an unlawful manipulation of the candidate list, which resulted in my effective removal from the list. I persist in my request that this court set aside the ANC’s decision for its unlawfulness.
He said it was unclear when the ANC alleged that he ought to have raised an objection, since he only found out about his removal a day before.
“Even then, I was not furnished with any reasons for my removal, and I thus could not possibly appeal or object without the reasons for my removal. When I made the objection, the ANC ought to have provided its reasons in order for me to be in a position to engage with it further on the unlawfulness of its decision. It elected to not engage with me, hence, my approach to this court,” he said.
However, the ANC responded by requesting the court to dismiss his court action for a lack of urgency. In its defence, the party said Mamabolo failed to meet certain requirements, which included submitting his qualifications. It also said there were many people who had performed better than him during interviews, which had become the party's selection criteria.
The party also accused him of being selfish, entitled to the positions and putting his needs before those of the party and electorates.
READ: ANC: Where’s your matric certificate? Mamabolo's membership, qualifications scrutinised
In his replying affidavit, the ANC provincial list committee chairperson in Limpopo, Kgoshi Thobejane, denied that the party removed Mamabolo’s name from the list.
Thobejane stated that Mamabolo’s name was reshuffled from position number five to position number 22 following the interviews and vetting processes.
Thobejane also denied that Mamabolo was nominated by 240 branches, adding that Mamabolo mentioned in his CV that he had matriculated at Mohlakaneng High School in 2002, but failed to submit supporting documents of his candidature. Defending the party for reshuffling his name, the ANC said only the first three names in the aforesaid list were those of the 10% which could not be touched.
Said Thobejane in the court papers:
The applicant does not fall within this category. Therefore, his name can be reshuffled in the process of screening and vetting in terms of paragraph 6 of the rules and / or in the balancing process in terms of paragraph 4 of the rules and / or taking into consideration the damning discrepancies in respect of his outstanding documents. The long and short of it is that the applicant has no clear right to demand the granting of an interdict in his favour in this urgent application.
The party also criticised Mamabolo for failing to adhere to the rules that regulate the procedure for raising disputes, objections or appeals against the nomination process.
“I must pause and state that the applicant has failed to make use of this appeal procedure. The extended PEC meeting was on 8 December 2023. The applicant never raised a complaint until 13 March 2024 when he did so through his attorney's letter, which is annexure "JM 5" to his founding affidavit. The rules state in clear terms that all objections and appeals about decisions made during screening and vetting and the extended PEC or NEC must be made to the EC, it being the final appeal body.”
Thobejane said Mamabolo was misleading the court when he alleged in his founding affidavit that he was nominated by some 240 branches of the ANC in Limpopo.
“He is simply trying to fake popularity for the sake of enticing the court's sympathy. Our records show that he was nominated by 115 branches. A person who is prepared to lie under oath cannot be trusted by any court of law,” added Thobejane.
READ: 'My removal from ANC candidate list is unlawful, detrimental to my financial well-being' - Boy Mamabolo
He said when the final list of the ANC was released by the IEC on 25 March 2024, Mamabolo’s name was number 22.
“So, it is not correct that the applicant was removed from the list of the ANC of Limpopo provincial to national. He was simply reshuffled to number 22, after due consideration of all the factors stated above. The said final list is annexed hereto marked ANC 6.”
The party argued that being on any list was not a guarantee that a person would be elected to Parliament.
Read the papers:
ANC and / or members of the public and / or electorate and / or people of South Africa who deserve the best available candidates. The final voice lies with the electorates
Thobejane also accused Mamabolo of lacking discipline and being selfish in his approach as if the ANC was a vehicle to create employment for its members when he stated that the main reasons he should be returned to Parliament were that he had a family to support and would suffer financial hardships.
“Economic or material benefits is not one of the requirements for nomination in the list. The applicant is deliberately ignoring the provisions of paragraph 3.12 of the rules, which constitute consent on his part to accept and abide by the organisational decisions of the ANC and electoral codes of conduct,” said Thobejane.
He requested the court to dismiss Mamabolo’s urgent application.
This application is not urgent. Alternatively, the purported urgency is self-created. Urgency is denied on the following grounds: First and foremost, the applicant is approaching the court on the wrong premises. He is approaching the court on the pretext that his name had been removed in the ANC provincial to national list of the Limpopo province. Now it is an established fact that his name was not removed.
According to the papers, Mamabolo was simply shifted to a different slot as a result of processes of the ANC rules, which he had agreed to be bound by.
“He does not take the court to his confidence by stating as to what manner were the rules not applied correctly or how he was treated unfairly. On this ground alone, the application brought on incorrect facts and / or deliberately twisted facts on the number of branches which nominated him cannot be heard in an urgent court. It inherently lacks urgency.
However, Mamabolo in his heads of argument said the ANC confirmed “on paragraph 8 of the answering affidavit that as on 8 December 2023,” when the extended PEC met to finalise the list, my name was “on number 5 in the provincial to national list”.
“In paragraph 28 of the answering affidavit, the ANC reiterated its concession that when the list was submitted to the ANC’s electoral committee, I was still at number five. There is then a material gap and scanty allegations in the ANC’s explanation regarding what happened to my name after the extended PEC approved it at number five and sent it to the executive committee,” he said.
After the argument, his case was dismissed with costs because it lacked urgency. Mamabolo has not indicated what his next step will be.
