Supra Mahumapelo in talks with ANC to find political solution to court challenge
30 January 2019
Former North West ANC chairperson and premier Supra Mahumapelo says he has entered into talks with his political party to map a way past a court challenge he’s brought against the ANC.
Mahumapelo and four others are challenging the ANC’s national executive committee's decision to disband his provincial executive committee. They claim the ANC’s highest decision making body in between conferences acted irrationally when it dissolved the provincial structure.
He confirmed to journalists, during a lunch adjournment at the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg where his matter is being heard, that he had called ANC secretary general Ace Magashule, seeking an audience over the matter. Mahumapelo, however, added that no solution had been reached yet.
"We are not there yet, if we get an undertaking from ANC leadership that all these matters we have raised will be attended to, post these processes, they will be investigated and some actions will be taken, he said.
Mahumapelo quit a provincial task team (PTT), meant to stabilise the province, claiming it was made up of people seeking to purge those who did not support Cyril Ramaphosa’s bid for ANC presidency at the 2017 national conference in Nasrec.
Take action
"If the NEC says yes, we can investigate and, where people were wrong, we will take action... that’s enough," said a Mahumapelo.
"We don’t expect the ANC to do that now before elections in May," he added.
Mahumapelo, who took "early retirement" in May, amidst violent protests in the North West and calls for him to step down as premier, said he and the other applicants wanted the elections to pass.
"We must win... thereafter we can return to these matters," he said.
Mahumapelo insisted that no one in the ANC had asked him to drop the case, which is currently underway.
Engineered
He said the ANC was discussing problems since the Nasrec era, which he said were engineered to "deliberately create a particular atmosphere".
Mahumapelo denied that he and his co-applicants were offered any positions in the National Assembly or provincial legislatures in return during the political talks.
It successful, Mahumapelo’s court bid could raise questions over the validity of the December national conference.
