AN URGENT court order in the Northern Gauteng high court determined that the mayor, councillors and municipal employees could resume their duties on Wednesday after chaos erupted at the municipality on Monday.
The chaos ensued when more than 50 police officials in police vehicles arrived at the municipality and allegedly forced their way into the council chambers on Monday.
The police allegedly assisted the ANC to forcefully take over the municipality.
A coup d’état was how Beyers Smit, DA member of parliament, described the incident.
“The takeover was done without any documentation, but as an instruction from the ANC,” he alleged.
Smit said entry doors to the council chambers were shattered and bent. The speaker and municipal employees were allegedly chased out of their offices as the police officials took over.
The councillors’ documents and computers were reportedly loaded into the police vehicles.
The gates of the municipality were then chained and locked, and some police officials remained behind to ensure that no one entered the premises without permission.
Smit questioned whether the police were going to pay for the damages. “Either way, the taxpayers are going to end up footing the bill, which judging from the damage incurred, is going to be very high,” Smit said.
Provincial police spokesperson, Col Ronél Otto, said the police’s actions were in response to a court order that stated that the recently-appointed mayor, William Mabuela and his councillors, had been dismissed and were on municipal property illegally.
“They were given numerous opportunities to leave the premises voluntarily, but they refused to do so,” she said.
On Tuesday morning an angry crowd of protestors gathered outside the gates, singing and toyi-toyiing. Mabuela and municipal manager, William Kekana, approached the court urgently on Tuesday to claim their positions back.
Their application succeeded and they were able to return to work on Wednesday.
