It comes in the wake of the metro’s decision to appeal against the guilty verdict in a defamation of character case against one of its councillors.
Clr Shelley Loe, DA caucus leader, said: “Who cares if we’re paying R1 million of public money to avoid paying R50 000 in damages?”
Clr Isak Berg of the Independent Ratepayers Association (IRASA) won his defamation case against a previous city manager, Patrick Flusk, recently. The court ordered that the metro paid Berg R50 000 in damages.
“Council decided most unwisely not to take the option to instruct Flusk to apologise for defaming Berg, and then, to make matters worse, to appeal against the initial court ruling which was made in favour of Berg,” Loe said.
The attitude of this government is this: who cares how much we spend of public money to try to bully one individual into submission? Actually, who cares if we lose?
“It’s public money.
” And lastly, who cares if we ignore the council resolution that no more than R10 000 may be spent on the legal defence of council officials? We didn’t care in the case of Robert McBride. We still don’t care, because we’re the ruling party, we’re powerful and we can do what we like with public money,” Loe said.
“Let us not forget McBride, who has also disappeared from Ekurhuleni, leaving in his wake the people who are paying his legal bills. He was about R11m more expensive than Flusk.”
