The Pietermaritzburg High Court has given five National Freedom Party (NFP) councillors a fresh lifeline after it extended the temporal court order or (rule nisi) barring their removal from Abaqulusi Local Municipality in northern KwaZulu-Natal.

The matter was heard on Friday last week and later adjourned indefinitely. 

The five councillors – including Khanyisile Jiyane, Sizwe Hadebe, and SIbusiso Nkosi – took the matter to court to challenge their firing by NFP President, Ivan Barnes. 

They argued that their expulsion from the council was unlawful and done without following the party’s constitution.

Nkosi was removed in May last year to pave the way for Barnes to become a proportional representation (PR) councillor both at Abaqulusi and the Zululand District Municipality where he wanted to be the mayor. 

The aggrieved councillors then filed papers to have their removal halted until the court ruled on their case. The court granted their wish, effectively barring Barnes and the party’s national executive committee (NEC) from sacking them.

On Friday, the case was adjourned because the lawyer for Jiyane and the four others was delayed along the N3 between Durban and Pietermaritzburg after the road was closed due to an accident.

The court further ruled that Barnes and his NEC should file their responding affidavit within 15 days.  Jiyane and his fellow litigants would have 10 days to file their responding affidavits.

Meanwhile, there is another pending court case in Pietermaritzburg where an NFP member wants to nullify the party’s December 2023 conference that elected Barnes and his NEC.