Endumeni’s suspended municipal manager, Thabani Biyela, has failed in his application to have his disciplinary hearing be declared null and void and that his suspension belifted.
Judge J van Ploos ruled in the High Court in Pietermaritzburg that Mr Biyela’s application be dismissed with costs – including the legal costs of the Municipality.
Mr Biyela was first suspended in April 2013 after the Council took a resolution that disciplinary steps be taken against him on charges of dishonesty, making false statements in his application for the post of municipal manager, failure to follow the municipality’s supply chain policy, irregular appointments of staff and submitting a fraudulent claim for the cost of furniture removal.
At a now infamous meeting on September 25 2013, it was debated that the resolutions that led to Mr Biyela’s suspension were flawed and therefore null and void.
Two DA councillors did not support this approach and excused themselves from the meeting – this left the meeting inquorate as in Endumeni seven of the 12 Councillors need to be present to constitute a quorum.

Mr Biyela then sought to challenge the resolution by seeking to prove that the charges against him had been declared null and void by the September 25 2013 meeting

An official pointed this out to the remaining Councillors who chose to ignore the advice and went ahead to adopt what turned out to be an illegal resolution to uplift Mr Biyela’s suspension.
Mr Biyela was then called back to his post and a flurry of appointments made at the municipality – these too were also later deemed to be illegal.
At another meeting on December 3 2013, Council finally resolved that the September meeting and the resolutions taken were not valid. Finally, on March 26 2014 the Council went back to square one and resolved that the September meeting was not legal and that Mr Biyela would have to continue to be on suspension until his disciplinary hearing is finalised.
Mr Biyela then sought to challenge the resolution by seeking to prove that the charges against him had been declared null and void by the September 25 2013 meeting and that his suspension be lifted.
However, Judge van Ploos formally declared this meeting null and void in his findings.
Mr Biyela must now face his disciplinary hearing. Meantime, he is still on full pay…