Suspended city boss loses court bid
Suspended city boss Johann Mettler has lost his court application to head back to work pending a disciplinary process.
But not giving up so easily, he vowed on Thursday that he would soldier on in his bid to return to office.
Mettler said he was geared up for the disciplinary process to get under way as quickly as possible, despite his unhappiness with the makeup of the committee taking centre stage in his application to the Port Elizabeth Labour Court.
On Thursday, judge Zolashe Lallie struck the matter off the roll due to a lack of urgency.
Lallie found that it had taken Mettler more than two weeks to file the application, and that not only was this delay unjustifiable, but that any prejudice suffered as a result was through his own doing.
Lallie said when Mettler was informed on September 28 of the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s decision to suspend him, he could have approached the court for an interdict.
No order was made with regard to costs and Mettler now has the option of once again bringing his application back to the court through its normal processes and timeframes.
Counsel for the municipality had argued that Mettler had tried to rely on the argument of urgency – or even semi-urgency – to “skip the queue” or for his case to be given preferential treatment.
Speaking shortly after the written judgment was made available on Thursday, Mettler said while he was still taking advice from his lawyers on how to proceed, he would preferably like the disciplinary hearing to kick off as soon as possible.
Mettler had initially complained that he was being robbed of a fair hearing because mayor Mongameli Bobani had handpicked the delegate to probe his case.
Mettler had claimed that his integrity and reputation had been sullied and that his suspension for misconduct had been unlawful.
The allegation of misconduct was made against Mettler when Bobani was still an ordinary Nelson Mandela Bay councillor.
Counsel for the municipality, meanwhile, countered that it had taken him 62 days after his suspension – and 81 days after the municipality contemplated suspending him – to launch the application on an urgent basis.
It argued that it was obvious from the inordinate amount of time it took Mettler to launch the application that it was by no means urgent and that it was merely an attempt to jump the queue and have his matter enrolled on a preferential date. Lallie agreed. “[Mettler’s] explanation that he had to provide his legal team with more documents is not reasonable,” Lallie said.
“The applicant failed to prove urgency or semi-urgency and any prejudice he stands to suffer as a result of his delay in approaching court is self-created and cannot be relied on.”
Lallie said she was not convinced that it would be fair for Mettler to be ordered to pay the legal costs incurred by the municipality in defending the matter.
She said Mettler had not been unreasonable in bringing the application.
‘The applicant failed to prove urgency or semi-urgency’ Zolashe Lallie
LABOUR COURT JUDGE