Suspended ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule will have to consider other legal options in his fiery battle against President Cyril Ramaphosa after the Johannesburg High Court threw out his application, on Friday.
Ace Magashule court bid thrown out by KZN court
Magashule’s attempt to invalidate Ramaphosa’s authority as leader of the ANC and render the party’s step-aside policy null and void was wholly dismissed by the High Court, chaired by judges Jody Kollapen, Edwin Molahlehi and Shares Weiner.
The suspended SG brought a number of applications to the Johannesburg High Court. He wanted the court to override the ANC’s decision to apply disciplinary measures to members facing criminal charges. Magashule also wanted the High Court to wholly dismiss Ramaphosa and Deputy SG Jessie Duarte’s responding affidavits, citing irrelevance and duplication as his reasons.
With regards to the latter, the court dismissed Magashule’s bid to strike out these affidavits for reasons listed in the full judgment which, at the time this article was published, had not been released to the public.
With respect to the step-aside resolution listed in the ANC’s constitution, particularly section 25.70, the court determined that Magashule’s contention that the rule was not consistent and, more than anything, unconstitutional “stands to be dismissed.”
Regarding the suspended SG’s bid to strike down this rule as unconstitutional, the court said:
“It is our conclusion that it cannot be struck down as unconstitutional on the basis that it is silent on the principles of natural justice. The answer to Mr Magashule’s assertion is simply, that where on the one hand the decision to suspend, taken in terms of rule 25.70, is punitive in nature, the rule may well require the applicability of the principles of natural justice.”
The High Court explained that a precautionary suspension, much like the one Magashule faces, “does not attract principles of natural justice and cannot be rendered open to attack when those principles are not applied.”
