Court bid to stop city by-elections
THE LOCAL by-elections might not go ahead as planned, as the expelled ANC councillors who will be contesting as independent candidates have applied for a court order to prevent voting from taking place.
By-elections are scheduled to take place in Ward 9 (Ipopeng), Ward 11 (Arena, Dingaan hostels), Ward 12 (White City), Ward 13 (Santa, Witdam), Ward 16 (Snake Park, Transit Camp, Promised Land), Ward 19 (Newtown, Crutze Square, Zingiza Saka) and Ward 32 (Phutanang, Platfontein) tomorrow.
Special voting was supposed to start today.
Two ANC proportional representative (PR) councillors and seven ANC ward councillors were expelled after they were found guilty of misconduct and conspiring with opposition parties to vote former Sol Plaatje executive mayor Mangaliso Matika out of office last year.
The court application also seeks to prevent new councillors from being appointed into their positions at Sol Plaatje Municipality until the matter is finalised.
According to the councillors they are all “ANC members of good standing”.
In court papers, it was stated that the municipality intends proceeding with the nomination and election of new councillors despite the fact that the expulsion of the councillors from the ANC was still under review, pending finalisation with the ANC national disciplinary committee.
The expelled councillors, including Pule Thabane, who was appointed for a short time as Sol Plaatje executive mayor, wish to be reinstated as councillors in the meantime.
They have maintained that they were removed in an “unlawful, unprocedural and illegal manner”.
“If interim relief is not granted, the municipality and Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will continue with the election process and appoint new councillors and possibly a new executive mayor to replace all the court applicants, notwithstanding the pending review. The appointment will be unlawful if it is made prior to the finalisation of the appeal. There exists, simply, no vacancies for them to be appointed in.”
The expelled councillors pointed out that the IEC would “incur great costs for a futile exercise”.
“All internal dispute resolution processes must be exhausted and any appeal or review suspends the effect of the ANC regional disciplinary committee’s finding. As such, the municipality’s decision to proceed with the elections and appointment of new councillors is premature and a breach of the provisions of the constitution of the ANC and an infringement of the rights of the applicants (expelled councillors).
“What adds further insult to injury, is the fact that the municipality’s formal declaration of the councillors’ wards as vacant is fundamentally flawed and contrary to the empowering legislation in that the acting municipal manager was not duly appointed when she informed the IEC about the vacant wards.”
They cautioned that the persons appointed to fill their positions would be “unlawful councillors”.
“A further practical implication is that when we are successful with our review, we are supposed to be placed back in our positions. That would mean that the whole exercise of holding by-elections would be fruitless. It would also undermine the integrity of our democratic process. If the elections take place, the municipality will be governed by an unlawful structure that runs parallel to the applicants as councillors.”
They added that they had decided to turn to the court after unsuccessful attempts to exhaust all avenues to resolve the matter in an amicable fashion.