PS in breach of directive – Vuvulane folk
MANZINI - Vuvulane urban area residents maintain that the PS in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Clifford Mamba, allegedly interfered with the rights of legible voters of Vuvulane Town Board.
This is contained in a replying affidavit of Sylvester Dlamini, who is one of the 10 Vuvulane Town Board residents, who took the ministry to court over local government elections, which were stopped. There are 10 applicants in the matter and they are represented by Lawyer Derrick Jele from Robinson Bertram. They are Sylvester, Thabo Dlamini, Thabo Vilakati and Nkosinathi Maziya.
The others are Hlobsile Ngozo, Luke Shabangu, Ncobile Gumedze, Mfundo Masuku, Sicelo Nene and Nhlanhla Mngometulu. The first respondent is the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Prince Simelane, while the Principal Secretary (PS) Clifford Mamba, who doubles as the interim Chairman of Vuvulane Town Board, is the second respondent. Vuvulane Town Board Deputy Chairperson Zandile Tsabedze is the third respondent, while Vuvulane Town Board (represented by Town Clerk Melusi Hlanze) and the Attorney General Sifiso Khumalo are the fourth and fifth respondents, respectively.
In the affidavit, Sylvester accused the PS of breaching the directive of the minister. He submitted that when the PS allegedly interfered with the rights of eligible voters, by stopping them from registering, he also breached or contravened the directive of the minister as contained in the gazette. Sylvester submitted that the Constitution, the Urban Government Act and the Urban Government (elections) Regulations provide, that the minister should provide through a written gazette, inter alia, the election of councillors for any town council or a town Board. He told the court that this was peremptory.
He added that the Constitution made it clear that councillors should hold office for a period of five years as that of Members of Parliament (MPs). He submitted that it was the common cause that the minister had complied with the constitutional and statutory provision as he called for the registration of voters that was to pave the way for the election of councillors. He said this was in terms of regulation three of the Urban Government Elections Regulations.
Interfered
Again, he submitted that it was also common cause that the PS had allegedly interfered with the rights of eligible voters by stopping them from registering, which was in breach or in contravention of the directive of the minister. “The PS has no such powers in law. It is the voter registration officers, not someone else who have to determine whether one qualifies to register to vote or not. The minister and the PS are obliged by law to allow the registration of voters. The application is solely aimed at forcing them to do just that,” Sylvester submitted.
Thereafter, he informed the court that it should not be concerned by whether they were eligible voters or not. He argued that the PS was allegedly seeking to downgrade the court to be a voter registration officer. He argued that the court should not stoop to that level. Sylvester emphasised that the minister had directed that the elections registration should commence. He argued that no one and not even the PS could question that.
Sylvester averred that the Vuvulane Town Board residents, by law, had the powers to elect their own councillors as they were eligible voters, by virtue of being the ratepayers and residents thereat. When responding to the PS’affidavit, Sylvester submitted that the minister, in terms of the Constitution, the Urban Government Act and the Urban Government Elections Regulations, does not have discretionary powers on whether there should be local government elections or not. He argued that these pieces of legislation made it mandatory for the minister to call for the election of councillors.
He added that they have shown that they were lawful residents of Vuvulane urban area in their founding affidavit and this has not been disputed by the deponent in his answering affidavit. Sylvester also argued that there was no threshold for elections at Vuvulane. In any event, even if that was the case, it was going to be a secondary issue. He emphasised that they had to register first and that was what this application aimed to achieve. “The fact that we have not come to court for the past years, does not take away our rights to insist on the registration of voters. The minister has called for same this year and we are enforcing that,” Sylvester submitted.
He added that in the previous years they mentioned, in the founding papers, that they engaged the ministry on the issue and nothing was done. He also highlighted that the deponent had not denied this in his answering affidavit. Therefore, he submitted that the deponent could not now be heard to say that they acquiesced in the curtailment of their rights as that was not true. Sylvester submitted that the court should compel the respondents to perform their statutory duty.