ANC secretary general Ace Magashule has lashed out at party members who continue to take the party to court “if a decision doesn’t favour the individual”.

Earlier on Thursday, some disgruntled members went to the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg to apply for an interdict to stop the ANC KZN 8th provincial elective conference from proceeding. However, the application was dismissed with costs.

Read more here: ANC KZN elective conference goes ahead as interdict application fails

The conference was supposed to take place last month in Empangeni, but it was interdicted at the eleventh hour after some disgruntled branches took the party to court hours before it started.

The ANC KZN’s provincial executive committee was disbanded earlier this year, after the High Court in Pietermaritzburg ruled in September last year, that the results of the November 2015 elective conference were unlawful.

But on Thursday, when he officially opened the conference in Durban, Magashule called those who took the party to court counter-revolutionaries.

“Is it because you are funded by counter-revolutionaries? Who is giving you money? Who pays your senior council? Should we conclude it is those people who want to derail the organisation? The enemy of the revolution is amongst you,” he said.

He asked members to “toe the line” when the highest structure of the ANC has spoken.

He added that the ANC had exhausted all internal processes dealing with the disgruntled members who took the ANC to court at the eleventh hour last month, shortly before the conference in Empangeni.

The National Dispute Resolution Committee (NDRC), led by deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte, and the movement’s national executive committee, led by Nocawe Mafu, visited the province and dealt with appeals and grievances from the Lower South Coast, Moses Mabhida and Harry Gwala regions.

“What else do you still want when we have exhausted all the internal processes of the ANC? If you are a member of the ANC, you must respect conference resolutions. The views of the majority must prevail over the views of the individuals,” Magashule said.

He urged delegates to use the conference to “self-introspect and self-correct”.

“We need to indeed tell no lies to each other or to our people. We must restore the party’s dignity. We need to understand where there’s a revolution, there’s always a counter-revolution.”

Magashule suggested that some members inside the ANC were ill disciplined.

“They fail to take instructions from the ANC. The ANC is the centre of power, not you. It doesn’t matter if you’re a premier or councillor. We must work as a collective and share our wisdom. Those who lose positions in this conference have a duty to respect the outcomes of the conference and accept new leadership,” said Magashule.

Magashule also used the platform to praise former president Jacob Zuma for the role he played in the country’s struggle.

“During his tenure, he took bold decisions. He led our movement to achieve free education for all students of our country, especially those who are from the working class and poor families,” he said.

Magashule said Zuma also introduced radical socio-economic transformation.

“It cannot be that the wealth of our country be in the hands of a few. You, who are public representatives, should stop complaining and make sure that you don’t talk but walk the talk. You must transform the economy of our country and change the lives of our people,” he said.

On the emotive issue of land redistribution, he said: “There’s no need for us to dilute the resolutions of the 54^th ANC conference, the land must return to its owners. Our focus must be on the 87 % of the land in the hands of these oppressors. The land that is in the hands of the minority,” he said.

Magashule said KZN was a “reservoir of the wisdom for the leadership of the ANC”.

“Five presidents out of the 13 that the ANC has had come from KZN,” he pointed out.

He also asked delegates to use the conference to forge unity in the province because “the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is the backbone of our party”.