By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) will approach the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) to appeal the Supreme Court of Appeal’s (SCA’s) decision in the Ezulweni saga.
ANC is at risk of being declared insolvent and being liquidated if it continues to ignore paying the R102 million it owes to Ezulweni investments, which has accumulated more than R40 million in interest at the cost of R900 000 per month since 2019.
Liquidation would mean the ANC could be disqualified from contesting next year’s elections.
In its ruling, the SCA questioned why further meetings were held with the concerned parties if the initial meeting clearly explained the ANC’s position in the matter.
The court also questioned why Fikile Mbalula’s personal assistant Lebohang Nkholise drafted a letter on 9 April to then Treasurer Paul Mashatile, requesting payment of the R87 million, instead of enquiring from Ezulweni CEO Renash Ramdas why an invoice had been sent when no agreement had been concluded.
The letters requesting payment were not immediately responded to stating that there was no agreement between the parties. The only letter sent in response said that the matter would be looked into, said the SCA.
“All of these factors, and more besides, demonstrate overwhelmingly that the version put up by the ANC as to the interaction between Ramdas, then-ANC financial manager Nhlanhla Mabaso and Nkholise is utterly untenable and without veracity,” said the SCA.
“The ANC’s version is not capable of belief in face of the cascade of communications from Ramdas that were met with deafening silence from the ANC. The only credible response of an entity in the position of the ANC, if its version was true, would have been immediately to set the record straight so as to prevent Ezulweni proceeding at risk.”
The ANC’s application was dismissed with costs.
But the ANC says it will take the matter to the ConCourt, arguing that the SCA did not consider new evidence which had emerged from a forensic report.
According to ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, the forensic report reveals “crucial evidence that makes it plain that there was no authorisation for the transactions in question, and certain implicated individuals misrepresented their positions and authority”.
Previously Ezulweni applied to seize assets worth more than R102-million from the ANC after the party refused to pay it despite two judgments in the company’s favour: one handed down in September 2020, and an appeal heard by a full bench of the Johannesburg High Court in June 2022.
In the High Court appeal ruling, the three judges said the ANC’s defence was “far-fetched”.
The ANC applied to the SCA for leave to appeal that ruling, but the appeal lapsed.
After Ezulweni obtained the writ of execution, the ANC reinstated the appeal, which was heard early in November and handed down on Friday.