DA rejects Umdoni’s leave to appeal at SCA

23 April 2024

The Democratic Alliance in KwaZulu-Natal has filed its response to the leave to appeal application in the Supreme Court of Appeal by the ANC-run Umdoni Municipality and controversial Municipal Manager, Thabisile Ndlela, in their continued quest to expropriate the Executive Council seat belonging to the DA.

Despite the DA’s victory against the municipality and Ms. Ndlela in the Durban High Court in January 2024 and having their leave to appeal application dismissed shortly afterwards, they continue to persist with their frivolous case at the Supreme Court of Appeal hoping to overturn the High Court's ruling and make the personal costs order against the Municipal Manager disappear.

At the heart of the case is the DA’s insistence that there can be no possibility that the Executive Committee is redetermined between elections and that this will only be possible after the next Local Government Election in 2026. As the High Court found, the Municipal Manager has acted entirely egregiously and must be held personally liable for costs as she had been repeatedly warned by the DA in Council and through our lawyers to appoint our Councillor.

Furthermore, it is extraordinary that the ANC and the Department for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government have remained entirely silent while a municipality that cannot afford to pay staff or deliver services is paying legal fees to defend their Municipal Manager in an unwinnable case.

In fact, they are so committed to this wasteful cause that they have proclaimed their preparedness to go all the way to the Constitutional Court. It is for this very reason that the DA will defend the court judgement and costs order against Ms. Ndlela because residents should not be forced to pay legal fees for the politically connected.

The DA in KZN once again appeals to the Umdoni Council, ANC and COGTA to respect the judgement of the Durban High Court and appoint our rightful Councillor to the Executive Committee to avoid any further embarrassment and costs for the municipality and Ms. Ndlela.

Issued by Dean Macpherson, DA KZN Chairperson, 23 April 2024