SUSPENDED ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule will appeal the South Gauteng High Court ruling dismissing his application to overturn his suspension.
On Friday, the full bench of the high court – judges Jody Kollapen, Sharise Weiner and Edwin Molahlehi – dismissed Magashule’s bid with costs and also declared that his purported suspension of ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa did not meet the mandatory requirements set out in the governing party’s constitution.
Magashule said he believes a higher court will come to a different conclusion.
In an interview on Friday, after the high court ruling, Magashule said the corruption fraud and money laundering charges he was facing for his alleged role in the R255 million Free State asbestos roofing eradication project were political.
”I am not affected by this judgment … It’s not the end of the matter,” the former Free State premier said.
Magashule said he had noted the judgment and one of the flaws in it was that he was given the right to a hearing by the ANC’s integrity commission, which happened in December 2020 in respect of the 30-day deadline, which he insisted was only done in the party’s national executive committee (NEC) in March this year.
“Obviously this is wrong and this is why we contest some of these issues,” he said.
Magashule also referred to the Constitutional Court judgment on the eve of the ANC’s 2012 national conference in Mangaung when some of the party’s former members, including erstwhile EFF MP Mpho Ramakatsa, hauled it before the apex court to challenge the Free State provincial conference.
“The Ramakatsa case I think has been twisted but I don’t want to come here and criticise the judges and that’s why what I want to say it’s politics versus the law. And remember people have been posing a question: is the state captured? Maybe it’s time to reflect on that matter but not today.”
Magashule also backed his legal team, which is made up of advocates Dali Mpofu SC, Mahlape Sello SC, Mpati Qofa and Mabuza Attorneys.
“My legal team and I can assure you that was the best legal team. You know, in law, it does not mean when you lose a case, I can remind you of the late (human rights lawyer and anti-apartheid activist) George Bizos, (late Chief Justice) Arthur Chaskalson, in their entire history, how many cases have they lost?”
Magashule continued: “Our team was the best and that’s why we are appealing the judgment because there are those issues which Judge Kollapen himself said they are very, very complex and I think a higher court can come to another decision which will be fair.”
He said claims that he was corrupt were painful especially when he has not done anything wrong.
“This is political but I think it’s political as well as legal because whatever issues I have raised they don’t just affect me as a member of the ANC and a leader,” said Magashule.
Political Bureau