Court orders reinstatement of sacked Amatola board members

Problems at the Amatola Water Board appear far from over after the Makhanda high court yesterday ruled in favour of five board members whose term of office was terminated by water and sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu.

Mchunu fired the 10-member board in March last year, citing instability in the water utility as the reason.

The other five members did not challenge Mchunu’s decision to fire them.

Mchunu appointed a sevenmember interim board, now in office.

Buhle Tonise, Zama Xalisa, Mxolisi Joe Skhosana, Tabisa Wana and Nkosazana NomaXhosa Jongilanga approached the court in a bid to reverse Mchunu’s decision.

Their term of office was supposed to run until February 2025.

In May last year, in a Makhanda high court ruling by judge Nomathamsanqa Beshe, the five won an interdict that sought to prevent Mchunu from appointing permanent board members.

Yesterday, Beshe said there was no evidence that the sacked board members had breached their code of conduct and ethics.

Through his legal team, Mchunu, in an affidavit filed in July last year, said the applicants’ application was “selfserving” and that they were “seeking to ensure that the

Amatola Water Board does not fulfil its functions”.

Beshe said the applicants had never denied the existence of challenges facing the board.

“They nonetheless contend that the board was making progress in the delivery of its mandate.”

Beshe ordered that the decision by Mchunu to terminate the appointment of the applicants as board members be reviewed and set aside.

“The applicants are to be reinstated as members of the Amatola Water Board with immediate effect.

“Mchunu] is ordered to pay the costs of the application,” the judge ordered.

Tonise said the judgment vindicated their “conviction that we always acted in the best interests of the entity”.

Mchunu’s spokesperson, Kamogelo Mogotsi, confirmed the minister had received the judgment and would “engage with the department’s legal services” on the way forward.