The Northern Cape Afrikaner town of Orania is to lodge an urgent application in the Kimberley High Court on Monday to stop the provincial government from abolishing the town's existing transitional representative council.
This follows the government's decision to publish a provincial gazette on Saturday morning formally abolishing the council, Orania spokesperson Carel Boshoff said.
"We are in the process of preparing sworn statements, which are to be handed in at the court this afternoon with a view to an urgent application on Monday morning."
Mpho Mogale, a consultant in the provincial department of local government and housing, confirmed MEC Pakes Dikgetsi had abolished the Orania council.
"The MEC felt that none of the objections submitted by Orania convinced him otherwise. In his view, the submissions were not persuasive enough."
On Monday, Orania is to ask the Kimberley High Court to make an exception by allowing the town's existing transitional representative council to remain in place, despite elections on Tuesday for the new combined Orania/Strydenburg/Hopetown, Boshoff said.
The latest dispute between Orania and the government relates to recent steps taken by the province to rectify administrative mistakes relating to the town's status prior to the local elections.
In terms of Article 12 of the Municipal Structures Act, all existing municipalities have to be officially abolished before the December 5 election. In the case of Orania, this was not done until Saturday morning.
When the provincial government learnt of its apparent oversight last month, it published a notice in the provincial gazette proclaiming its intention to abolish the Orania municipality.
The notice gave Thursday, November 30 as the deadline for comments, effectively precluding the community from bringing court action until afterwards.
After submitting its objections on Thursday, Orania met Dikgetsi in Kimberley the following day to ask him not to go ahead with the disestablishment of the town's local council.
He was unable to give an answer at that stage, and only made his decision known on Saturday morning.
Boshoff explained the town's intended court action as seeking some sort of "insurance policy".
"We accept the stance of the government and the Municipal Demarcation Board that they are prepared to continue discussing issues surrounding Orania's self-determination after the election.
However, we are saying in that case they should not terminate our existing limited municipal independence."
Should the application be granted, it would mean that the new Orania/Strydenburg/Hopetown council would co-exist with the Orania representative council, Boshoff said.
This anomaly would have to be cleared up in talks with the government after the municipal elections.
Orania's intended court action follows the failure by the government and the Municipal Demarcation Board to resolve the community's concerns about self-determination by the November 3 deadline announced by the town in October.
The community is objecting to its merger with Hopetown and Strydenburg into a single municipality.
The Afrikaner town, structured as a private settlement in 1991, maintains that its claim to self-determination is underpinned by the constitution.
Orania elected its own transitional representative council in 1995, and was busy with preparations to hold separate elections on Tuesday to elect new councillors.
Residents would not participate in the official poll, which would effectively bring an end to the town's current municipal independence.
The respondents in the pending court case, 48 in total, include President Thabo Mbeki, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi, Home Affairs Minister Mangosutho Buthelezi, Northern Cape premier Manne Dipico, Dikgetsi, the Municipal Demarcation Board, and the Independent Electoral Commission.
The remaining respondents were made up of the Bo-Karoo district municipality and all local councils falling under its control, of which Orania was a part.
The town has since abandoned its intention of seeking a postponement of Tuesday's poll. - Sapa