Africa-Press – South-Africa. The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg has dealt a blow to Cogta MEC Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi’s attempts to force a special uThukela District Municipality sitting.
This, after provincial Cogta head Thando Tubane complained to MPLs last week that questionable judgments hamstrung the MEC’s calls for special sittings.
A nexus of political parties, led by the ANC and EFF, believe they have the numbers to topple the IFP, which the DA backs in the troubled municipality.
The leaders of the opposition parties in the council cite poor service delivery as the basis for writing to Sithole-Moloi who, in turn, called for the sitting, empowered by the Municipal Structures Act, in early May.
Opposition parties in the council, including the ANC and EFF, claim Speaker Lihle Nqubuka repeatedly refused to call a special sitting.
A special sitting was eventually set for 5 May, but it was collapsed by what Sithole-Moloi described as a “mob” of IFP supporters, who barricaded the entrance to a special venue in Ladysmith.
Nqubuka later sought an interdict against the MEC’s call for the special sitting.
The High Court order said the matter must be adjourned indefinitely.
If Sithole-Moloi insists on another special sitting, she has to undertake not to include the sixth respondent, former independent councillor Sihle Ernest Ngwenya, as a participant, pending finalisation of a court matter.
Ngwenya is said to have given powers to the ANC while he, at some point, represented DA interests in the council, through a horse-trading deal with the IFP, according to a DA councillor.
Sithole-Moloi and Ngwenya were also told to file their answering affidavits on or before 29 May.
Nqubuka must file her replying affidavit on or before 7 June.
The parties have been granted leave to approach a senior judge for an urgent date for the hearing.
Tubane recently told MPLs that some of the judgments against Sithole-Moloi that related to special sittings were shocking.
The DA hailed the order as a “devastating blow to the MEC and her department at a time when stability and guidance are desperately required across KZN’s municipalities”.
In a statement, DA MPL Martin Meyer said:
Citing Cogta’s ballooning legal bill, which has been at R46 million since 2019, Meyer said there were concerns that the department was being “weaponised by the ANC to be used against municipalities that have turned their backs on the party”.
“With the shocking state of many municipalities, including Msunduzi and the crisis-ridden eThekwini metro, Cogta should be focused on fixing what is broken, not using its dwindling financial resources to fight political battles,” the statement read.
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