By Sihle Mavuso
The deputy mayor of eThekwini, Zandile Myeni; the mayor of Nongoma, Mshangane Ndabandaba; and 10 other senior members of the National Freedom Party (NFP) have dragged their party president to court to prevent him from suspending them.
The NFP members today filed papers with the Pietermaritzburg High Court and have asked it to hear the matter on an urgent basis.
Their application comes after the party’s president, Ivan Barnes, accused most of them of insubordination and asked them to give reasons why they should not be suspended from the party.
The members instructed their lawyers to write to Barnes to retract the letters of intent to suspend them. Barnes did not follow their instruction and was then dragged to court. He is yet to file his responding papers.
The other parties in the application against Barnes are councillors in municipalities like eMadlangeni and Abaqulusi.
In the main, they want the letters from Barnes to be declared invalid. They also want clause 5.2.6.2 of the NFP’s constitution to be declared unlawful and invalid.
They said the clause grants the national executive committee and president of the party the right to suspend, demote or dismiss members without any formal and fair disciplinary hearing.
They also want the court to interdict Barnes from acting against any of them or any member of the party until the matter has been heard and ruled upon by the court.
The court is yet to determine a date to hear the matter – one of the many legal battles currently pitting NFP members against each other.
Pictured above: NFP president Ivan Barnes.
Source: File/Celani Sikhakhane
