Johannesburg — THE Johannesburg High Court yesterday dismissed an attempt by a member of the Sandton branch of the African National Congress (ANC) to have the party's conference later this month postponed for six months.

The applicant, lawyer Votani Majola, cut a lone figure in courtroom 6E as he tried to argue that the conference be postponed so that the "playing fields" in the party's presidential succession race could be levelled.

The ANC's national conference in nine days' time will see the party's presidential seat contested for the first time in 58 years. With ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma leading nominations in the presidential succession battle, lobbyists for President Thabo Mbeki's re-election bid have launched a fight-back plan.

Majola, whose branch supports Mbeki's re-election bid, had his case thrown out of court . Acting Judge Hilton Epstein refused to allow for responding affidavits or arguments, saying the applicant had not proven his case.

Majola, a commercial lawyer by trade, had represented himself in the application. He said he had "taken instruction" to appeal in the failed case but refused to disclose who his client was.

The Sandton branch did not endorse Majola's court bid, yet some of Mbeki's staunchest allies belong to the branch, including the ANC's head of the presidency, Smuts Ngonyama, and Justice Minister Brigitte Mabandla.

In delivering his verdict, Epstein reproached Majola for not following ANC internal processes, saying the court would not tell the ANC how to run its business.

"The application ignores the rights of the ANC. It has a constitutional right to undertake a democratic process. If the court granted this application it would infringe on a democratic process," Epstein said.