Gangster State

that the meeting was never formally quorate, nominations were
accepted. Mrs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was nominated as a
candidate, which nomination was accepted without counting the votes.
Another member nominated Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, but that nomination
was completely ignored by the chairperson. Tempers consequently
flared and a violent altercation broke out.’^7
Another Magashule ally did something similar at a BGM in
Koffiefontein, located in the province’s Xhariep region. This meeting
was attended by provincial spokesperson and PEC ‘deployee’ Thabo
Meeko. ‘During the counting of the votes for the presidential
candidates the said deployee deliberately distorted the figures in favour
of one presidential candidate [Dlamini-Zuma],’ read the court
application. There was also meddling from a senior provincial party
leader at Ward 1 in the Xhariep region. Thandiwe Reachable, mayor of
the Letsemeng local municipality (Koffie​fontein) and one of
Magashule’s fellow PEC members, ‘chaired the [branch] meeting in
clear violation of the guidelines which specifically states that the [PEC]
deployee should not chair the meeting’. Reachable certainly made her
presence felt. ‘When the deployee realised that the voting numbers
were tipped in favour of one presidential candidate [presumably
Ramaphosa] she sabotaged the meeting and the vote counting process
by starting several vote counting processes until members got so
frustrated that they left the meeting.’^8
The ‘bare denials’ proffered by the respondents did not convince the
High Court that the irregularities did not occur. The court found that
Magashule and his fellow respondents ‘also failed to deal with the
conduct of the respective PEC deployees’. The court case also
highlighted the troubling phenomenon of prohibiting certain branch