Gangster State

there were 214 signatures on the register and that a quorum had
therefore been reached. However, there were only approximately 80
people at the venue. Despite the fact that there was no quorum, a
delegate from this ward was chosen.’^14
Magashule and co.’s reply in this regard did not impress the High
Court. ‘The respondents attached the attendance register for Ward 8 in
an attempt to refute the allegations pertaining to the lack of a quorum.
However, in addition to the fact that the contents thereof were again
not confirmed under oath, the attendance register in fact did not
confirm that a quorum was reached,’ the court found.^15 The applicants
highlighted similar problems at a number of other branches in the
Mangaung region, and each time the respondents failed to convince the
court that such irregularities did not occur. In fact, the High Court had
few kind words for the manner in which the respondents tried to
defend themselves. They ‘attempted to present countermanding
evidence to rebut allegations made by the applicants, but dismally
failed to do so,’ the court found. Their ‘bare denials’ were ‘vague,
lacking in specificity and made in a generalised fashion’. Their
answering affidavits therefore ‘failed to raise genuine bona fide
disputes of fact’. As a result, the court ruled that the applicants’ rights
to participate in the ANC’s democratic processes were ‘blatantly and
grossly violated by the occurrence of the established irregularities’.^16
The court further ruled that the provincial conference could not go
ahead until the affected branches held new meetings that were in line
with the ANC’s rules and the country’s Constitution. The decision had
a bearing on twenty-nine branches in four regions.
This placed Magashule in a bind. The provincial conference was
scheduled to take place over the first weekend of December, and