Maepa highlights alleged DA ploy to hijack Tshwane offices

While an official administrator and a team of experts paddles on in the running of the embattled Tshwane metro, the ANC’s Tshwane regional chairperson Kgosi Maepa has accused DA council members of forcefully attempting to hijack Tshwane offices following a court ruling this week, allowing the DA to resume council in Tshwane.

The Gauteng High Court ruled that the DA could resume council in the metro while the ANC’s appeal bid in the Constitutional Court is still pending.

This was to allow for a new mayor to be appointed in the city to succeed Stevens Mokgalapa.

In April, the high court ruled that the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) decision to accept recommendations on the dissolution of the Tshwane metro council was unlawful.

A majority of provinces during a sitting of the NCOP in the Gauteng legislature voted to adopt a report recommending the council’s dissolution following a number of failed council sittings.

This week, in an electronic judgment, it was decided that councillors were reinstated pending the outcome of the ANC and EFF’s application for leave to appeal.

This came after the High Court in Pretoria ordered the administrator appointed by the Gauteng provincial government to vacate office, declaring his appointment invalid and unconstitutional.

In the midst of all the confusion, the DA announced its intent to hold a council meeting on Friday which was expected to announce Mokgalapa’s replacement as mayor, a position which has been vacant for months since Mokgalapa was in a scandal which brought the party and office into disrepute.

Although the DA’s mayoral candidate Randall Williams said they did not want to waste any more time on Tshwane’s future, the ANC’s Maepa claims DA councillors planned to hijack Tshwane offices by force as an alleged letter from the state attorney’s office to DA lawyers in Cape Town indicated that Tshwane councillors had allegedly hijacked and illegally occupied Tshwane council offices and were refusing to leave.

According to DA Chief whip Christo Van Den Heever, the party had postponed their meeting on Friday to await applications pending on Tshwane metro issues.

“This is because an application has been launched to overrule the verdict of the North Gauteng High Court that reinstated the councillors to office and ordered the unlawful administrators to leave.

“We await the outcome of the Supreme Court of Appeal’s very urgent consideration of this matter.”

Van den Heever confirmed the administrators were still in the driver’s seat on Tshwane metro issues until a court has launched an overall verdict.

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