Gangster State

region. ‘Similarly, in wards 6 , 8 , 13 and 22 , if members were suspected
of belonging to the “CR 17 ” faction or indicated so during the meetings,
they were excluded from partaking in the meeting or removed from the
venue.’^12 Magashule and his fellow respondents tried to convince the
court that the security firm had been appointed ‘to secure all members
of the ANC’, but the High Court would have none of it. ‘[C]ontrary to
the alleged reason why [the firm] was appointed, they were part of the
cause of violence and became part and parcel of it, instead of
preventing it,’ the court found.^13
The court case also exposed the pro-Magashule camp’s other
preferred methods of sidelining rivals. In this regard, ‘inadequate notice
and/or a complete failure to notify members of an upcoming BGM’
were the order of the day, as was ‘the manipulation of membership
numbers in certain wards’. The latter ploy allowed certain branches ‘to
reach the required quorum or appoint more delegates than [the] branch
would legally be entitled to’. What transpired at a branch in the
Mangaung region illustrates this tactic. According to the court papers,
Ward 8 was scheduled to hold a BGM on 21 October 2017 , but ‘the
venue was changed without proper notice’, which resulted in many
branch members not attending. And those members who did make it to
the BGM were barred from entering. ‘The meeting was scheduled to
start at 9 h 00 , but when members arrived, they were informed that the
process had already begun at 6 h 00. [Other] people were allowed to
enter and participate without proper credentials. The gate that allowed
access to the venue was locked before all members could enter.’ The
unnamed PEC member who presided over the meeting was either up to
some serious mischief or was in desperate need of an eye examination.
‘Ward 8 has 426 audited members. The PEC deployee announced that