The disgruntled ANC members, otherwise known as the “tsunami”, have one up against the ANC yet again after the Makhanda high court ruled on Wednesday that the ANC and its secretary-general Fikile Mbalula must, within 10 days of the order, deliver the electronic membership system results for the branch attendees for the entire province for 2025 and 2026.
In the judgment delivered in the high court in KuGompo City on Wednesday, judge Avinash Govindjee ordered that such results, now infamously known as “raw data”, be delivered to the registrar of the court in electronic form and by such secure means as the registrar may direct.
The applicants, Lwazi Rotya, Sinethemba Mpande and Nompumelelo Mzotwa, took the ANC to court over branch dispute grievances and successfully interdicted the provincial ANC elective conference earlier this year.
In the latest litigation, which was heard on September 17 and the ruling delivered electronically on Wednesday, it was an interlocutory application described to compel the production of “raw data”, with the trio seeking specific performance of an undertaking made by the ANC and Mbalula in the main application and accepted by the applicants.
The main application was brought on an urgent basis as the party prepared to hold its elective conference in April in KuGompo City.
It sought various declaratory and interdictory relief pertaining to an ANC Eastern Cape provincial conference and alleged pending branch disputes.
In the application, the trio asked that Mbalula be directed to produce the actual results of the electronic membership system, described there as the “ANC MMS Evidence of Attendance System” reflecting the actual scanned results of branch attendance throughout the Eastern Cape as prepared in 2025 and 2026.
“The electronic results delivered in terms of paragraph 2 must be kept confidential and separate from the publicly accessible court file. They may be accessed only by the court and the applicants’ legal representatives ...” Govindjee said.
In the ruling, Govindjee said the applicants’ legal representatives may, upon reasonable written notice to the registrar and the attorneys of the ANC and Mbalula, inspect the electronic results and take written notes at such place and for such reasonable periods as the registrar may direct.
“Save for the written notes permitted ... the applicants’ legal representatives may not copy, photograph, download, reproduce or remove the electronic results.
“Any information obtained from them must be kept confidential and may be used only for purposes of the main application under this case number, including the preparation of supplementary papers.
“Any document filed in the main application which discloses members’ identifying particulars must either be filed under seal or have those particulars redacted.
“Within five court days after delivery, the second [ANC] and third respondents [Mbalula] shall deliver an affidavit, deposed to by a person with personal knowledge, describing the electronic results delivered and confirming that they are complete,” the judge said.