Suspension of municipal director was unlawful

THE Great Kei Council’s decision this year to suspend its technical and engineering director Juan Van Dalen was yesterday declared unlawful by the Grahamstown High Court.

Although Van Dalen’s suspension has subsequently lapsed, making the court case academic, Van Dalen persisted with it, saying the suspension remained a blot on his work record.

Judge Jeremy Pickering agreed the matter was urgent as the suspension carried with it implications of misconduct and was prejudicial to Van Dalen’s integrity and dignity.

The council acknowledged in a letter to Van Dalen’s attorney that it had first unlawfully suspended Van Dalen in a meeting in February last year. It said this would be remedied at its May meeting.

In May, the council purported to again suspend Van Dalen on full pay. But, Van Dalen claimed it was again unlawful as the issue of his suspension was never put to the vote.

Van Dalen said the matter of his suspension had been resolved merely by a motion being moved by a councillor, which was seconded by another councillor and then adopted by council. He said this did not amount to a vote.

Pickering said some form of voting was required in order for a valid decision to be taken by a council.

He found that Great Kei municipal manager Ivy Sikhulu-Ngwena had been evasive on the issue of whether or not a vote had taken place.

He said she could have simply produced the minutes to give the lie to Van Dalen’s allegations that no voting occurred.

“Instead it chose to rest its case on what can only be termed as an ambiguous denial in the course of which the fourth defendant [Sikhulu-Ngwena] does not even go as far as stating that the resolution was adopted unanimously,” Pickering said.

Van Dalen’s averment that no voting took place had to be accepted, Pickering said.

He found that Van Dalen’s suspension was unlawful and also ordered the Great Kei municipality to foot the legal bill for the application.