The current leadership of the National Freedom Party (NFP), led by Ivan Barnes, is breathing a sigh of relief after the Pietermaritzburg High Court today ruled that it was correctly elected during the December 2023 conference in Durban.

The court’s ruling comes after a group of five party members led by Mceleleni Mlangeni and Sithembile Msomi took the matter to court for final adjudication.

The members sought to nullify the conference results, arguing it was marred by irregularities, including barring certain members from voting, particularly delegates from the Eastern Cape province. The court found no substance to allegations of voter roll tampering.

The committee developed and adopted the voters’ roll. Whilst the issue of the Eastern Cape delegates was unresolved, none of those delegates complained about an infringement of their constitutional rights. The applicants did not exhaust all the internal remedies before approaching the court.

“They did not refer their objections to the objections committee. They did not request the newly elected NEC to attend to their objections. It seems that these objections were self-created,” ruled Judge AJ Zwane.

Relating to costs, Judge Zwane said no cost order would be imposed on either party in order to allow them to reconcile. He noted that the basis of these endless court battles in the party stem from factional fights.

“The applicants and almost all the respondents are members of the NFP. The present dispute amounts to a power struggle amongst the members.

“Those members who are bitter about the outcome of the 2023 conference elected to approach the court to vent their dissatisfaction. The long-standing rifts must heal in time. A cost order might make the healing process difficult. Ordinarily, costs must follow the outcome. However, in the interest of reconciliation, I make no order as to costs,” he ruled.