A petition with duplicated names and missing pages dealt a blow to a rival faction of the National Alliance on Thursday, which lost a court bid to have Gary van Niekerk removed as a councillor and president of the party.
The judgment settles a two-year dispute over the legitimate leadership of the National Alliance, with the faction opting not to appeal against the court’s decision.
The petition, which was said to have been signed by 1,000 members, served as the basis for a 2023 congress that ousted Van Niekerk as party president.
He is also the city’s deputy mayor.
The court found the number of valid signatures fell short of the constitutional requirement, with 78 names having been duplicated.
The petition submitted to the court also had missing pages, later added to a replying affidavit stating that it had an extra 49 signatures.
However, this number was also later challenged.
Judge Ivana Bands read the ruling on behalf of judge Denzel Potgieter.
The two factions had been in a legal tussle since Bevan Brown, then the party chair, was removed as a PR councillor by Van Niekerk in 2023.
This was after Brown broke ranks with the party’s leadership and openly defied their stance on forming a new coalition in the city with the ANC and other parties.
At the time, the National Alliance was part of a 10-party coalition led by the DA.
The shift ultimately resulted in Van Niekerk becoming mayor.
He later became deputy mayor.
The National Alliance holds three seats in the council. It has been unable to swear in a new councillor since the expulsion of Brown.
After fighting to be reinstated, Brown and others convened an elective conference in 2023, where Japie Jansen was elected president.
They then expelled Van Niekerk and Stag Mitchell and asked city manager Noxolo Nqwazi to declare their council seats vacant.
Mitchell is Van Niekerk’s deputy in the party.
However, the court granted Mitchell and Van Niekerk an interim interdict preventing the IEC from replacing them as councillors.
In the second part of their application, they requested the court to review and overturn Nqwazi’s decision to declare their seats vacant.
National Alliance secretary Vasu Padayachi, who was the sole representative for Van Niekerk in court on Thursday, said the ruling validated them and confirmed, once and for all, the true leadership of the party.
“We hope these guys have learnt their lesson and will stop coming after us because they are never going to win,” he said.
Padayachi said they would now turn their attention to rebuilding the party’s branches ahead of the 2026 local government elections.
“The elective congress will happen after the branches have been established, which we are working on now.
“After the [Ward 34] by-election, that will be our focus because we have to have it before the elections,” he said.
Van Niekerk said the outcome was a hollow victory because the party was bankrupt from the court action.
“Our legal fees are over R1m by now, and having won the case with costs having to be paid to us, we need to start recouping these unnecessary costs first, and then the door will be open to talks about reconciliation.
“All these court cases have left the party bankrupt, which makes these court victories hollow.
“Our [Ward 34 councillor] candidate Morne du Plessis needs us all on the ground.
“They are still in possession of our party regalia, as is evident in their so-called conference videos.
“We need this regalia, including boards and flags, for our campaign in the by-election.”
Kerwin Stuurman, who was elected chair at the 2023 conference, said he did not believe the judge had properly considered the petition.
“It was confirmed there were more than 1,000 signatures, and he is disputing 11 of those without confirming it through an expert, for that matter,” he said.
Van Niekerk challenged the signatures on the petition, submitting that 67 were duplicates — an assertion the faction did not dispute, according to the ruling.
An additional 11 names were also brought to the court’s attention.
Brown said they would not appeal.
“It will be a costly exercise. We had a brief session with our attorney, and I have advised everyone to take a back seat and let it sink in, and then we will regroup tomorrow.”
He said the option of smoking a peace pipe with Van Niekerk was not off the table.
“Jansen is all for forgiveness and reconciliation. It is something we will consider,” he said.
“It is a matter of putting egos aside.
“It is a sad day for the people of the northern areas.
“I can tell you the colleagues on the other side have done absolutely nothing for our constituency and especially the members of the NA.”
In his ruling, Potgieter reaffirmed the interdict he had granted against the IEC and the municipality.
He dismissed the application that sought the recognition of the 2023 conference and election with costs.
Potgieter said Jansen and Stuurman failed to demonstrate compliance with the party’s constitutional requirement for the minimum number of signatures needed for a valid petition.
Jansen and Stuurman were the respondents.
“It is readily apparent that the validity of the members’ petition is central to the case of the respondents and is the key to the action taken which culminated in the ‘expulsion’ of the applicants,” he said.
“In my view, this is destructive of the respondents’ case in the counter-application, which patently stands or falls on the validity of the petition.”
Potgieter questioned the legitimacy of an interim federal executive committee, which had no constitutional basis, but still played a key role in preparing for the conference.
“The existence of such authority is accordingly dubious and would in all likelihood have tainted the subsequent steps taken by this structure,” he said.
The Herald
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