The Pietermaritzburg High Court’s decision that nullified several Umvoti Local Municipality council resolutions could leave two senior officials without bodyguards.
On Monday, the court set aside several council meetings and its resolutions. According to sources within the municipality, one of the resolutions taken in the meetings that the court set aside was the provision of security to the two senior officials who had received death threats.
After a brawl and a fist fight that went viral last week, during which the two Abantu Batho Congress (ABC) councillors were forcibly removed from the council, the ABC’s Philani Mavundla went to court.
He requested that the Speaker, Ntombi Ngubane, be interdicted from preventing his party’s councillors from attending the meeting.
The ABC also asked the court to set aside all council decisions that were taken without the participation of its affected councillors.
The judgment read: “The applicants may not be removed, excluded, or prevented from attending any council or committee meetings. All meetings purportedly held on 6, 25 November, as well as 8 and 11 December, are declared unlawful, and all resolutions and decisions taken at such meetings are declared unlawful, set aside, and with no force or effect.”
The court also directed the municipality to provide security to the applicants.
Mavundla welcomed the ruling and said he was concerned about the use of taxpayers’ money in defending a case where the Speaker had ignored the old court order that prevented her from removing the two councillors.
He called on the Speaker to personally cover the court costs.
“The Speaker ignored an old court order that prevented the municipality from removing our councillors until my case with the faction is completed. So we do not understand why our councillors were forcibly removed from the council at gunpoint. The Speaker is in contempt of court and must face consequences, including bearing the financial costs of our cases,” said Mavundla.
The municipality in Greytown, north of Pietermaritzburg, is currently governed by the IFP and ANC, with the IFP taking both mayor and deputy positions, while the ANC opted for the Speaker’s position.
The legal battle between the ABC and the municipality dates back to the failed attempt by the ABC and ANC to remove the IFP mayor, Gabriel Malembe, by a motion of no confidence in October. The IFP wrote to Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi to intervene, arguing that the two ABC councillors were not supposed to participate since they were no longer councillors.
This was based on a decision by another ABC faction that expelled the two councillors. According to the ABC, that decision was set aside; however, the municipality continues to ignore it.
As part of its political strategy to force the IFP to reinstate its Umkhanyakude District Municipality mayor, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal directed its caucus to dump the IFP and work with Mavundla’s party.
It is unclear whether the ANC still wants to remove the IFP mayor after normalising their relationship with the IFP, particularly in Umkhanyakude, where the IFP agreed to return power to the ANC.
On Monday, the ANC also saved IFP Premier Thamasanqa Ntuli from being ousted by no-confidence vote.
ANC regional coordinator Sakhile Zulu distanced the party from the Speaker’s decision, saying she did not inform even the caucus of her decision to remove the ABC councillors.
Attempts to get comments from the Speaker were unsuccessful.
