Gangster State

former MK soldier, and five other party members from branches across
the Free State launched an application in the Bloemfontein High Court.
While the court papers did not expressly identify the applicants as
members of the Regime Change group, some media reports branded
Ramakatsa as one of the faction’s central figures alongside Dukwana
and Besani.^25 Magashule and the rest of his PEC, along with the
ANC’s national leadership, were listed as the respondents.
The applicants wanted the latest Magashule-led PEC to be disbanded.
They argued that the processes leading up to the Parys conference had
been ‘manipulated and abused’, and that the ‘principle of fair political
play was flagrantly undermined’, while ‘the election was not free and
fair’. They also wanted the court to overturn the national ANC
leadership’s recognition of the PEC as a ‘lawful, authentic and
representative leadership structure’. In late October, Bloemfontein High
Court judge Mojalefa Rampai ruled against Ramakatsa and his fellow
applicants. But his judgment was based solely on ‘fatal procedural
defects and irregularities’ in the application itself. Rampai did not rule
on the ‘substantive merits’ of the case, namely the alleged irregularities
at the branch meetings.^26
The six disgruntled party members insisted on having a court
pronounce on the alleged irregularities. They therefore took the matter
to the Constitutional Court. This allowed them to present to the
country’s most senior judges a detailed, branch-by-branch breakdown
of the underhanded tactics that had prevented some party members
from attending the elective conference.
At the Fidel Castro branch in the Motheo region, for example, ‘a
properly elected chairperson and branch secretary’ requested that they
be allowed to ‘participate in the audit process’ and ‘complained about