DA seeks High Court intervention to halt Tshwane City closure

13 March 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has approached the North Gauteng High Court to halt the unlawful actions by opposition parties to deactivate the DA-led City of Tshwane Municipality over the past few months.

The DA has filed papers, and we are confident that our case is strong in terms of the law and strong regarding the facts.

Please click here for the Founding Affidavit.

Tshwane is not dysfunctional.

The issue at hand is that for months the ANC and EFF have continually collapsed Council meetings with their disruptive behavior and walkouts.

Nevertheless services continue to be delivered, despite the Council not being unable to form a quorum due to the walkouts.

When it comes to truly dysfunctional Councils, look at the ANC-led Emfuleni Municipality where sewer is flowing in the streets and Eskom recently got the Sheriff to seize assets to pay for millions of rands of unpaid bills.

And what about the Merafong, Rand West City and Lesedi Local Municipalities that are corrupt and way beyond dysfunctional?

Why does Gauteng Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) MEC, Lebogang Maile not intervene there?

The answer is simple.

These municipalities are being run by the ANC, whereas the City of Tshwane is run by a DA-led coalition.

The DA's court action is about defending the rights of one sphere of government that is a local council, from being taken out by an ANC provincial government.

The truth is that after 2021, there will be dozens more councils around the country where the ANC has lost to minority governments.

The Constitutional Court has made it clear that an intervention by one sphere of government for example a province in the affairs of another for example a Council is highly circumscribed.

National and Provincial spheres of government are not entitled to usurp the functions of the municipal sphere except in exceptional circumstances.

The DA will argue that no exceptional circumstances exist for intervention in the City of Tshwane.

All that has happened is an abuse of the processes by MEC Maile and his henchmen.

The DA will do its upmost to overturn the decision to dissolve Tshwane.

We will succeed in carrying out a defined plan of action to deliver high quality services to the residents of Tshwane over the next 15 months.

Please click here to download a photo.

Issued by Mike Moriarty, DA Gauteng Provincial Chairperson, 13 March 2020