1. A brief background to this matter is as follows:

a) The Appellant brought an application against the respondent wherein it inter alia sought the following relief:

“1. That the Regional Conference of O R Tambo of the African National Congress held on 16 to 18 October 2015 (“the conference”) and the decisions taken in that conference are declared unlawful, illegal, unconstitutional and consequently null and void;

2.   Directing that the costs of this application be paid by those respondents who oppose this application; and

3.   As to such further and/or alternative relief as this Honourable Court seems meet.”

b) One of the points raised by inter alia the 4th respondent in limine was that there was undue delay in launching the application in that the decision sought to be set aside was taken in October 2015 whereas the application was only launched in April 2017.

c) The court a quo hearing the matter decided the point in limine in respect of undue delay in favour of the respondents and dismissed the application with costs.

d) The court a quo found as follows:

“The conclusion that I reach is therefore that the applicants delayed inordinately and in the exercise of my discretion the explanation given does not meet the requisite standard. In the result, the applicants fall to be non-suited for having delayed before resorting to remedial action.”

e) The first applicant in the court a quo, the Appellant before us, brought an application and was granted leave to appeal the judgment of the court a quo.