City of Tshwane to appeal ruling suspending ‘unlawful’ appointment of Wonderboom Airport transaction adviser

The City of Tshwane says it will appeal a high court ruling suspending the appointment of Ntiyiso Consulting, an external transaction adviser hired by the City to oversee Wonderboom Airport.

The judgment was handed down in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday.

In his ruling, Judge J Ranchod suspended the appointment of Ntiyiso Consulting and also requested that the City appoint a properly qualified airport manager within 15 days.

Both the City and Ntiyiso Consulting were taken to court by the Wonderboom Airport Interest Group in a bid to have the private company suspended.

In a statement on Thursday, the City said they would appeal this ruling.

“While this administration holds the law in high esteem, it has elected to appeal the decision due to material considerations.

“City of Tshwane executive mayor, Cllr Stevens Mokgalapa, looks forward to bringing finality to the matter,” the City said in the statement.

It added: “The decision to appeal is in the interests of restoring optimised operational capacity and profitability of Wonderboom Airport.”

The appointment of Ntiyiso Consulting, the interest group said in court papers, was done without proper consultation and the correct procedures were not followed. It was unlawful and “contrary to procurement legislation”.

Ntiyiso Consulting also had no experience in the aviation industry or airport management, the group maintained.

“The very appointment of [Ntiyiso Consulting], be it for advisory and investigative purposes or the enabling of it to appoint (deploy) external contractors, is unlawful.

“The aforesaid actions could only have been taken through a tender process,” the Wonderboom Airport Interest Group said.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.