A faction within the PAC said it would seek an interdict preventing Parliament from swearing in a new party MP.
|||Cape Town - A faction within the PAC said on Tuesday it would seek an interdict preventing Parliament from swearing in a new party MP.
Pan Africanist Congress president Letlapa Mphahlele was expelled from the party at the end of May after a meeting of its national disciplinary committee (NDC).
Faction spokesman Apa Pooe said they found out about Mphahlele's removal from National Assembly Speaker Max Sisulu, through their lawyers, on July 12. Pooe said the letter of Mphahlele's removal was already on social networking site Facebook at that stage.
“According to the letter from the Speaker, the removal was as a result of a letter written by then suspended secretary general, Mr Narius Moloto, who claimed that (the) PAC has expelled Mr Letlapa Mphahlele,” he said.
“Despite the fact that the national executive council of (the) PAC wrote to Parliament, it would appear that the office of (the) Speaker has been deliberately flirting with Mr Moloto in order to swear in someone whose name was submitted by Mr Narius Moloto.”
The faction would approach the Western Cape High Court on Thursday to interdict Sisulu from swearing any person in as a member of the National Assembly in place of Mphahlele.
The NDC said in May that Mphahlele had been charged with failing to account for parliamentary and Independent Electoral Commission funds, not respecting national executive committee (NEC) decisions, and appointing a chief administrator even though the position was not provided for by the PAC constitution.
He had been accused of creating a bogus NEC, appointing a publicity secretary, suspending deputy secretary general Bennett Joko without due process, failing to abide by a court order preventing him from holding a PAC meeting, and promoting factionalism within the party's ranks.
The NDC said neither Mphahlele nor his legal representatives attended its sittings and had found him guilty on all charges. - Sapa