By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The High Court in Makhanda has ruled that the African National Congress (ANC) has unlawfully appointed its Eastern Cape Provincial Task Team (PTT).
The temporary body was appointed last month to oversee the ANC’s affairs in the Eastern Cape following the expiry of the Provincial Executive Committee’s (PEC) term.
The ANC previously failed to hold its provincial elective conference.
Disgruntled members approached the courts over allegations of branch irregularities and membership manipulation.
Judge Vuyokazi Pamella Noncembu handed down the judgment in the Makhanda High Court on Thursday.
“All 40 PTT members, including its chair Oscar Mabuyane, have been interdicted from acting as the ANC’s Eastern Cape leadership or from representing the province in any party activities.”
“All decisions taken by the fifth to forty-fourth respondents are declared unlawful, invalid, and of no force or effect,” the judgment said.
The ANC was also ordered to pay punitive legal costs.
Despite criticism from within the party ranks, ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula insisted the establishment of the PTT was a constitutional and routine organisational intervention.
“The ANC is functioning well in the Eastern Cape,” Mbalula said during the announcement.
“The National Executive Committee has, in line with the Constitution of the ANC, approved the regularisation of organisational business in these two provinces through the establishment of provincial task teams in the place of provincial executive committees whose terms have expired without a provincial conference having been held.”
He stressed that the Eastern Cape ANC had not been disbanded.
“The Eastern Cape is not disbanded. Its term lapsed,” he said.
Mbalula also dismissed suggestions that the changes would affect governance in the province. “The governance of these provinces is not affected by these organisational matters of the movement. The work of the state continues,” he said.
The task team consists of 20 women and 20 men drawn from all eight ANC regions in the province.
Its immediate mandate includes stabilising internal structures, managing ongoing legal disputes linked to branch processes, preparing the ANC for the 2026 local government elections, and steering the province toward a legitimate elective conference.
Lehlohonolo
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