Gangster State

address the conference, seemingly chose to side with the Magashule
bloc with regards to the Regime Changers’ successful Constitutional
Court challenge the previous year. ‘Whilst we respect the rights to legal
recourse of any individual, including ANC members, the emerging of a
culture of taking the organisation to court must be discouraged and it
must come to an end,’ Ramaphosa told an appreciative audience of
Magashule backers.^43 He failed to recognise the fact that Ramakatsa’s
group only took the ANC to court after they had first submitted their
grievances to the party’s top national and provincial leadership
structures.^44
In the weeks after the Welkom conference, Ramakatsa vowed to again
fight the latest outcome in the courts.^45 ‘I wonder whether comrade
Ace and those who conspire with him to wreck the ANC sleep well at
night. For them the ANC is merely a vehicle for self-enrichment,’ he
told Volksblad.^46 It would be one of his last public utterances as an
ANC member. Instead of continuing his legal battle against the
Magashule faction, Ramakatsa turned his back on the ANC. In July
2013 , he was introduced as the national coordinator for Julius
Malema’s newly established Economic Freedom Fighters.^47 Thus
ended one of the strongest challenges ever to Magashule’s hegemony.
The Regime Change movement faded into oblivion and the chairman
and his allies were again free to rule the ANC roost in the province, at
least for the following four years.
The Constitutional Court’s judgment did not inspire those implicated
in dubious political practices to mend their ways. In 2017 , Magashule
and his allies again received a lashing in court following complaints
about their conduct. This is unpacked in Chapter 29.