File picture. Different political parties can be seen during a short caucus before the start of council at Tshwane House, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles
The Democratic Alliance (DA) announced that the Tshwane council meeting which was due to take place on Friday has been postponed.
This comes after DA said its legal council will be writing to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to ask that the court urgently set a date to deal with the appeal that has been submitted by the Gauteng MEC of Cooperative Governance (Cogta), Lebogang Maile.
DA councillor Christo van Heever said in a statement on Friday: “Today’s meeting of the Tshwane council, which was agreed to by all party whips, has been postponed. This is because an application has been launched to overrule the verdict of the Pretoria High Court that reinstated the councillors to office and ordered the unlawful administrators to leave.
READ MORE: Court rules DA Tshwane councillors be reinstated immediately.
“We await the outcome of the Supreme Court of Appeals’ very urgent consideration of this matter. A quick decision is anticipated as the Courts Act prescribes that these matters be dealt with on an extremely urgent basis,” he added.
DA councillors were set to resume their work at the Tshwane council on Friday after the high court judgment, which deemed the dissolution of council illegal, was to be implemented with immediate effect.
DA mayoral candidate Randall Williams said on Thursday: “That means, the administrators are no longer in office and that the councillors will resume their work in the city.”
Williams said the latest court ruling would cease in the collapsing of the city’s council meetings.
“African National Congress (ANC) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) councillors are obligated to not only attend council meetings, but once they are in the meeting, they must remain until the meeting concludes according to the previous judgment.
ALSO READ: Gauteng govt lodges urgent appeal against DA’s latest Tshwane court win.
“You won’t have the same problems you’ve had before of council meeting collapsing,” he added.
The mayoral candidate highlighted that if ANC and EFF councillors did not adhere to the court ruling, the councillors will be held in contempt of court which will lead to a jail term if found guilty.
He said the ruling also had given the council speaker the power to call a council meeting and the now postponed meeting was set to elect a new mayor while also looking at the issue of the acting city manager.
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