DA wins court action for the immediate reinstatement of Councillors - despite ANC and EFF appeals

10 June 2020

Today the Gauteng North High Court ruled in favour of the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) application that the court judgment declaring the dissolution of the Tshwane Council illegal be implemented immediately.

In short, the legitimate Councillors will now return to office and the ANC-imposed administrators must vacate the City

This is a further indictment of the ANC provincial government and its Premier David Makhura and its MEC Lebogang Maile, who have systematically undermined governance in the City of Tshwane.

The High Court has further emphasized 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.

Today's judgement preserves 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 judgement 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.

The Court found that exceptional circumstances did indeed 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.

The Court found that the residents of Tshwane would suffer irreparable harm if the administrators were allowed to stay in office any longer.

The Court said, “If this application is refused, an unelected administrator will remain in place, accountable only to the GEC that appointed him and for a period far beyond that envisaged in the Constitution. It cannot be overlooked that the provincial government is controlled by a party that did not win the city of Tshwane municipal elections in 2016”.

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 judgement further reiterated that the ANC and EFF have 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.

Issued by Randall Williams, DA Tshwane Mayoral Candidate, 10 June 2020