By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The North Gauteng High Court struck from the roll an urgent application seeking to challenge the legitimacy of the Johannesburg regional conference.
At the conference, City of Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero lost to the current regional chairperson Loyiso Masuku.
The court challenge was brought by Stanley Itshegetseng, an influential figure in ANC politics in Johannesburg. He is also seen as a close ally of Morero.
Itshegetseng argued that the company that oversaw the election of the top five and the additional members of the REC is owned by a City of Joburg employee. The name of the company is Elections Management Consulting Agency of Africa (EMCA).
This company first came into the spotlight when police raided the home of the company’s owner after a tip-off that the ballot papers used at the ANC conference were lying around the house. A case of fraud has since been opened.
Itshegetseng wanted the court to interdict the REC from making any decisions of binding force, including caucus directions, disciplinary actions, branch and regional administration or public political programming, pending finalisation of the matter.
He also wanted the ANC to take all necessary steps to arrange for the reconstitution of the regional conference with the same delegates who attended the December 2025 conference to elect new leadership.
Judge Wilhelmina Elmien Jacoba du Plessis stated that the application lacked the required urgency for legal intervention.
“I accept that the applicant has acted out of genuine concern for the integrity of his party’s internal democracy and electoral processes,” Judge du Plessis noted.
“This finding should not be interpreted as saying that members can never approach a court directly. There might well be circumstances where, for instance, such remedies are demonstrably illusory, or are themselves part of the complained-of illegality, where direct judicial intervention is justified. This, however, is not such a case on the facts before me. The matter, therefore, must be struck from the roll.”
The conference was marred by allegations of bribery and vote-buying by those seeking a mandate to lead the organisation for the next three years, pointing to infighting in the region that could hurt the party in next year’s local government elections.