{"id":48440,"date":"2023-05-16T21:30:49","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T21:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/court-deals-blow-to-kzn-cogta-mecs-calls-for-special-sitting-in-uthukela-municipality"},"modified":"2023-05-16T21:30:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T21:30:49","slug":"court-deals-blow-to-kzn-cogta-mecs-calls-for-special-sitting-in-uthukela-municipality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/court-deals-blow-to-kzn-cogta-mecs-calls-for-special-sitting-in-uthukela-municipality","title":{"rendered":"Court deals blow to KZN Cogta MEC&#8217;s calls for special sitting in uThukela municipality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg has dealt a blow to Cogta MEC Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi&#8217;s attempts to force a special uThukela District Municipality sitting.<\/p>\n<p>This, after provincial Cogta head Thando Tubane complained to MPLs last week that questionable judgments hamstrung the MEC&#8217;s calls for special sittings.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition parties in the council, including the ANC and EFF, claim Speaker Lihle Nqubuka repeatedly refused to call a special sitting.<\/p>\n<p>A special sitting was eventually set for 5 May, but it was collapsed by what Sithole-Moloi described as a &#8220;mob&#8221; of IFP supporters, who barricaded the entrance to a special venue in Ladysmith.<\/p>\n<p>Nqubuka later sought an interdict against the MEC&#8217;s call for the special sitting.<\/p>\n<p>The High Court order said the matter must be adjourned indefinitely.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Sithole-Moloi and Ngwenya were also told to file their answering affidavits on or before 29 May.<\/p>\n<p>Nqubuka must file her replying affidavit on or before 7 June.<\/p>\n<p>The parties have been granted leave to approach a senior judge for an urgent date for the hearing.<\/p>\n<p>Tubane recently told MPLs that some of the judgments against Sithole-Moloi that related to special sittings were shocking.<\/p>\n<p>The DA hailed the order as a &#8220;devastating blow to the MEC and her department at a time when stability and guidance are desperately required across KZN&#8217;s municipalities&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, DA MPL Martin Meyer said:<\/p>\n<p>Citing Cogta&#8217;s ballooning legal bill, which has been at R46 million since 2019, Meyer said there were concerns that the department was being &#8220;weaponised by the ANC to be used against municipalities that have turned their backs on the party&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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,&#8221; the statement read.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\">South-Africa<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg has dealt a blow to Cogta MEC Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi&#8217;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&#8217;s calls for special sittings. A nexus of political parties, led [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":48439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12,377],"tags":[274,315,4535,550,286,288,275],"class_list":["post-48440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-to-homepage","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-bongiwe-sithole-moloi","tag-governance","tag-kwazulu-natal","tag-politics","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Court deals blow to KZN Cogta MEC&#039;s calls for special sitting in uThukela municipality - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/court-deals-blow-to-kzn-cogta-mecs-calls-for-special-sitting-in-uthukela-municipality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court deals blow to KZN Cogta MEC&#039;s calls for special sitting in uThukela municipality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg has dealt a blow to Cogta MEC Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi&#8217;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&#8217;s calls for special sittings. 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