High court rules in favour of DA
"The court ruled the municipality unlawfully gave a DA Exco seat to the ANC."
The Durban High Court, on Monday morning this week, ruled in favour of the DA in KZN in a matter against Umdoni Municipality regarding the reallocation of the DA’s Executive Committee (Exco) seat to the ANC.
Umdoni Municipality was contacted for comment on the matter on Tuesday, but none had been received at the time of going to print.
Since November 2022, the DA had sought to have its Exco seat rightfully allocated to the party after the Umdoni municipal manager, Thabisile Ndlela, allowed the ANC to occupy the seat after a former DA councillor defected to the ANC through a by-election.
“The court ruled the municipality (led by the municipal manger’s guidance) unlawfully gave a DA Exco seat to the ANC and, by doing so, violated the Municipal Structures Act, despite numerous warnings from the DA and our lawyers,” explained Dean Macpherson, MP – DA KZN chairperson.
After the 2021 municipal elections, 37 councillors were effectively elected onto council – the ANC held 17 seats and the DA held seven. Councillor Edwin Baptie, who had been appointed by the DA as a member of Exco, resigned, leading to the vacancy.
The DA then appointed councillor Shamila Sookhraj to fill the vacancy, but instead it is believed that the municipal manager and others brought forward an ANC councillor to fill the vacancy, which led to Sookhraj and the DA taking legal action.
“The judgment by Justice ZP Nkosi is damning towards the conduct of the ANC-aligned council and how it ignored the prescripts of the Municipal Structures Act headed by the speaker and mayor.”
Macpherson added that for the DA, the most scathing part of the judgement by the High Court found that the municipal manager should be held personally liable for her costs as a direct result of the court finding that her conduct was ‘blatant and egregious’.
“We believe our court victory sets the tone around the importance of proper governance and what happens when laws are violated by those driven by arrogance in the pursuit of their own agenda over the basic needs of the people.”
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