Cape Town - The embattled municipality of Kannaland’s application to have a decision to declare a vacancy in its council interdicted has been dismissed.
The verdict was delivered by the Western Cape High Court on Thursday.
The municipality argued that the MEC for local government in the Western Cape, Anton Bredell, did not have the power to override the municipal manager’s (MM) decision not to declare a vacancy. It also wanted to stop the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) from acting on the “impugned” decision.
The case was brought by Kannaland’s acting municipal manager, Ian Avontuur.
The vacancy in question is that of the municipality’s Speaker, Rodge Albertus, who recently conducted an investigation against three Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa (Icosa) councillors for alleged fraud, theft and corruption, which led to council deciding to remove them as councillors. A decision Bredell refused to adhere to.
Albertus’ party, Kannaland Independent Party (KIP), terminated his membership in July - which triggered the vacancy.
In a judgment released on Thursday, Judge J.I Cloete ruled against the municipality and dismissed the first part of its application.
Part A sought an interdictory relief, pending the outcome of Part B, which wanted to review and set aside Bredell’s decision to write to the IEC.
“The municipality contends that the MEC’s notification to the (IEC) was made unlawfully and irrationally since the MM was obliged to satisfy himself that Albertus’ termination of membership of KIP was valid and lawful,” read the judgment.
Cloete said the municipality’s papers also failed to set out a case for Part B of their case.
“But I’m not persuaded that the municipality has established a prima facie right, albeit open to some doubt, for interim interdictory relief. Objectively Albertus has ceased to hold office, and there is no attack on the KIP decision to terminate his membership before me. Secondly, the MM is statutorily bound to inform the (IEC) of that objective fact within 14 days, therefore.
“Given the MM’s failure or refusal, the MEC, in turn, became statutorily bound to fulfil this obligation which he did timeously.
“Part a of the application is dismissed. The applicant shall pay the second and third respondents’ costs in respect of Part A.”
In reaction to the verdict, Avontuur told Weekend Argus: “We are busy studying the judgment and will determine our options after consultation with our legal team.”
Bredell’s spokesperson, Wouter Kriel, said: “Our legal people are now working through the ruling.”
Weekend Argus.