The Sunday Independent

PAC bears brunt of factionalism

DON MAKATILE don.makatile@inl.co.za

AS THE battle for the soul of the PAC rages on, the party has been barred from participating in the upcoming 2021 Local Government Elections as the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) “is unable to recognise any of the groupings contending to be the legitimate leadership of the PAC”.

The contest for the leadership of the party founded by the late Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe gets murkier with each court appearance by the warring factions. They were back in court again on Monday and the judge reserved her ruling in the virtual sitting after hearing the heads of argument by the respective legal counsel, says one of the parties, Narius Moloto.

Moloto leads one faction that includes Bennett Joko and Philip Dhlamini, on the one hand, while Mzwanele Nyhontso and Apa Pooe form the opposing group, on the other hand.

In a letter to Dhlamini, the IEC says: “It is for this reason that the Commission had taken the decision communicated to the various groupings of the PAC, under the cover of its letter dated 3 December 2019, from its attorneys, Moeti Kanyane Inc., that, for as long as this leadership dispute persists, the Commission is unable to recognise any of the groupings contending to be the legitimate leadership of the PAC. A challenge to this decision by one of the groupings of the PAC in the Electoral Court was dismissed, and the issue is therefore res judicata”.

“The natural consequence of the Commission's decision communicated in its above mentioned letter to all the groupings within the PAC is, inter alia, that the Commission is unable to accept any nominations of candidates to contend by-elections or the 2021 Local Government Elections, by any person claiming to represent the PAC, as the Commission will be unable to determine whether the person purporting to make the nomination is an authorised representative of the PAC within the contemplation of Regulation 9 of the Municipal Electoral Regulations, 2000.”

And yet both groups are adamant they are the legitimate leaders of the PAC. The dispute at the heart of the implosion, as the courts have observed, concerns the legality of two elective congresses convened, first by Moloto and held on 24 and 25 August 2019 at Tompi Seleka in Limpopo province, and the elective congress held by the Nyhontso group on 29 and 30 August 2019 at Bloemfontein. Before the separate elective conferences, there was a meeting of minds where, at their Johannesburg office, a National Executive Council (NEC) was set up, with Moloto as the face of the party and President and Nyhontso as Deputy President and the PAC representative in Parliament. The agreement was that they will hold one congress in Bloemfontein until Moloto “addressed a letter to all structures of the PAC setting out what he asserted was the state of affairs within the party”. On 10 June 2019, Moloto issued a decree in which he summarily removed all members of the National Executive Council. There has not been peace since and the PAC has only been able to conduct its affairs in the courts.

Judgments by Justice Mavundla on 8 March 2019, uniting the PAC under the leadership of President Moloto and his Deputy Nyhontso and another by Acting Justice Millar on 9 June 2019, setting aside the unilateral actions of Moloto to fire the NEC, have been contested from the high court to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.

METRO

en-za

2021-05-09T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-09T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://thesundayindependent.pressreader.com/article/281762747131750

African News Agency