City to attach property at ANC Headquarters due to failure to pay R300 000

11 June 2018

On 5 June 2018, the City of Johannesburg obtained a writ of execution against the ANC for its failure to pay over R300 000 in legal fees owed to the City and its residents.

Should the ANC fail to honour this payment by Friday, 15 June 2018, the City has instructed its lawyers to proceed with the execution of the court order, which will result in R300 000 worth of property being seized from the ANC headquarters, Luthuli House, by the Sheriff of the High Court.

On 26 September 2017, the ANC brought an urgent application to the South Gauteng High Court in a desperate effort to table a motion of no confidence against the Speaker and myself, by secret ballot, at the next Council sitting.

The High Court found that the ANC’s motion lacked the urgency which they attempted to fabricate into existence.

The Court struck the ANC’s application from the roll and awarded costs in favour of the City as a result of the ANC’s application being “devoid of urgency”.

Such a costs order is rarely granted in an urgent application of this nature and highlights the fact that the ANC was wasting the Court’s time.

During the proceedings, Judge Shangisa questioned the ANC’s Counsel on whether any disaster would befall the party if the matter was not heard on an urgent basis. Unsurprisingly, the ANC could not address the court on that matter.

There were no facts placed before the Court as to why the application was urgent. Instead, the ANC continued to make baseless allegations of incompetence and a pending financial crisis without placing any supporting evidence of this before the Court.

The ANC’s baseless accusations were exposed as nothing more than a smokescreen to regain control of the City by any means possible.

It was unfortunate that Court’s time and taxpayer’s money had to be used to prove this basic point. However, more concerning is the ANC’s failure to respect the Court order which instructed the ANC to pay for the City’s legal costs.

This R300 000 belongs to the residents of this City. Either the ANC is unable to make this payment due to its own financial challenges or it is the result of the ANC’s continuous and willful disregard for public money.

The days of the ANC being able to abuse public money in the City of Johannesburg are over and we will not hesitate to execute this court order should the ANC fail to make payment by Friday.

Issued by Tony Taverna-Turisan, Director: Legal Advisory, Office of the Executive Mayor, 11 June 2018