Court rules DA Tshwane councillors must be reinstated immediately

The court noted the acting city manager would remain in place.

The Pretoria High Court on Wednesday ruled in favour of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in a battle over the dissolution of the Tshwane Council.

The judgement that deemed the dissolution of Tshwane Council illegal will be implemented with immediate effect, which means that DA councillors will be reinstated while the administrators must leave.

“The legitimate councillors will now return to office and the African National Congress (ANC) imposed administrators must vacate the City of Tshwane,” said DA councillor Randall Williams in a statement.

Williams said the outcome was a further indictment of the ANC provincial government, Premier David Makhura and its MEC Lebogang Maile, “who had systematically undermined governance in the City of Tshwane”.

He said the high court has further emphasised the unlawfulness of the province’s decision to place the City of Tshwane under administration.

“This judgment sets a vital precedent for the many councils for which leadership is won against the ANC by minority governments in next year’s elections.

“Such councils will typically be located in provinces where there will be an ANC provincial government,” he said.

The DA councillor further said the judgement preserved the constitutional requirement that municipalities should be run by representatives of the people without fear of bullying or interference by any provincial government.

“Winning this case was a major victory. An appealed judgment is usually suspended and not given immediate effect.

“To enable a judgment to become immediately effective when it has been appealed against requires showing that there are exceptional circumstances and that if the judgment is not granted, there would be irreparable harm,” he added.

Williams continued to say that the court found that exceptional circumstances did exist to warrant that Maile’s administrators be removed from governing the city, although the judge noted that the acting city manager would remain in place.

“Maile’s strategy to grab power in the city has failed dismally,” he said.

He said the court also found that the residents of Tshwane would suffer irreparable harm if the administrators were allowed to stay in office any longer.

“A crucial part of the DA’s argument was that residents in the city have a right to be governed by the people that they elected.

“Each day the administrators are deployed in office, they undermine the democratic outcomes of the 2016 election and the values enshrined in the constitution.

“The courts agreed with these points, even declaring that the running of the city by an unelected administrator is the very antithesis of these values,” the councillor said.

Williams added that the judgment reiterated that the ANC and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) had a legal obligation to attend council meetings, and a failure to do so would put them in contempt of court.

“Today’s court judgment is a crucial victory for the residents of the municipality because it entrenches their right to be governed by the representatives that they elected.

“The reinstated councillors will immediately begin planning the logistics around holding a council meeting to ensure that a mayor can be elected and that the disruptions to governance and service delivery caused by Lebogang Maile and his cronies come to an end,” he concluded.

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