DA wins back its Umdoni Exco seat via court ruling
THE DA in KwaZulu-Natal has hailed the Durban High Court ruling that reinstated its Umdoni Local Municipality councillor back to the executive committee.
In a ruling yesterday, Judge ZP Nkosi ordered the reinstatement of an Exco seat to the DA.
The party had gone to court last year after the ANC-led municipality on the South Coast took away the seat from the DA and gave it to the ANC.
The DA argued that the seat legally belonged to it. The ANC did not agree but the court set aside the municipality’s decision and ordered the municipal manager and speaker to give the seat back to the DA.
The handing down of judgment was attended by DA provincial leader Dean Macpherson, Umdoni Municipality DA caucus leader Shara Singh and Shamila Sookhraj who was appointed by the DA to the Exco.
Speaking outside the court, Macpherson hailed the judgment, saying it was sending a message to the ANC that the abuse of power would not be tolerated.
“As the DA in KwaZulu-Natal, we are immensely pleased with the court judgment. The justice has set aside the decision of the ANC not to appoint Shamila Sookhraj as an Exco councillor. More importantly, the municipal manager would pay the cost personally for sabotaging councillor Sookhraj.
“This judgment sends a strong message to the ANC, local government, provincial and national government that the DA would not allow the ANC to bully us and use the legislation to suit their needs. We call on the Umdoni speaker to implement the judgment without delay,” he said.
In a seven-seat council, the DA got two, the ANC three, while the EFF and the IFP got one each.
The problem started when the DA Exco councillor Edwin Baptie resigned to take up a seat in the provincial legislature in August 2022.
By that time the ANC had taken ward 13 from the DA through a by-election. Instead of replacing Baptie with the DA’s Sookhraj, the municipality appointed the new ANC councillor, arguing that the DA had lost a seat in the council, therefore it should not have two seats in the Exco any more.
But the DA argued that the Exco allocation happens once and no recalculations could take place in the middle of the term.
The act that prevented reshuffling of the Exco came into effect just before the 2021 local government polls. It was amended to avoid instability that could be caused by by-elections.
With this court victory, Sookhraj would double her salary from R300 000 to more than R600 000 per annum. She would also be back-paid from November 2022 – the time she was appointed to Exco.
Sookhraj expressed her gratitude to the DA for supporting her and her Exco appointment. DA caucus leader Shara Singh said the ANC councillor illegally given the Exco seat would have to pay back all the benefits he had received as an Exco member.
In the 2021 elections, the ANC got 17 seats, the DA seven, IFP five, EFF five, AIC one, AM4C one and Al Jama-ah also one. Umdoni Municipal manager Thabisile Ndlela said she had not seen the judgment yet and would first look at it before commenting.