Pretoria - The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has on Tuesday reaffirmed the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria ruling passed on June 10 in terms of Section 18 (3) of the Superior Courts Act lodged by the DA seeking to enforce the April 29 judgment nullifying the provincial executive council decision to dissolve Tshwane council.
The SCA handed down a majority judgement supported by three judges, dismissing with costs the urgent appeal application in terms of Section 18 (4) of the Superior Courts Act evoked by the executive council against the June 10 ruling.
The executive council wanted its decision to dissolve the Tshwane council to remain in force amid its legal challenge of the high court ruling at the SCA and the Constitutional Court.
The case at the Constitutional Court where the executive contested the council dissolution judgement was heard in September and judgment was reserved.
Although the SCA ruling effectively reaffirmed the high Court ruling handed down on April 29, it never dealt with the appeal against that judgement, but its enforcement.
The SCA judgement said: " The issue before this Court is whether the DA satisfied the requirements of Section 18 of the Act for interim enforcement of a judgment pending an appeal. It is important to emphasise that what is before us is an appeal against the order putting into operation the judgment and orders made by the full court, pending an application for direct appeal to the Constitutional Court and the conditional appeal to this Court, not the appeal against the main judgment delivered on April 29 2020."
The ruling also essentially reinstated Tshwane councillors to their posts after they have been out of work for almost eight months.
It also marked an end to the stay in office of the administrators appointed by the provincial executive council in March to run the City's affairs in terms of Section 139 (1) (c) of the Constitution.
The administrators' term in office was, according to the Constitution, supposed to have ended in June after 90 days.
However, they exceeded their stay in office due to the long drawn-out legal fight between the DA and the provincial executive council.
The legal saga emanated from a decision taken by the executive council in March to dissolve Tshwane council.
The dissolution was partly prompted by constant disruptions in Tshwane council due to the walkout from council meetings by ANC and EFF councillors.
In court papers, the executive council also mentioned poor service delivery as one of the reasons why it intervened in the City.
The decision was successfully challenged by the DA at the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria but the ruling on April 29 could not be implemented after the provincial council appealed the judgment at the SCA.
DA provincial leader Mike Moriarty welcomed the long-awaited judgment, saying it was in favour of the DA's Section 18(3) application seeking to reinstate the party in the City and oust the unlawful ANC administrators.
He said it was obvious from the court judgment that the ANC’s action to put the City of Tshwane under administration eight months ago was a politically motivated power grab on the part of the local government MEC Lebogang Maile.
According to Moriarty, there was no justification in removing the elected DA councillors from their posts.
"The DA will ensure that Maile is personally held to account for all legal costs, wasting taxpayers money and the perilous state of chaos and mismanagement that the City of Tshwane is in today due to his and the ANC’s unlawful actions and the incompetence of the administrators he foisted on the City for all these months. For months residents of Tshwane have suffered, while Maile's friends and ANC cadres collected exorbitant salaries," Moriarty said.
The SCA ruling said: "If this Court were to uphold the appeal, an unelected administrator would remain in place, accountable only to a different sphere of government that appointed him, and for far beyond the period envisaged in the Constitution. The choices of voters at the municipal level would then be disregarded, and the autonomy of local government, undermined. And this, when the provincial government is controlled by a party that did not win the Tshwane municipal elections in 2016, and where the dissolution decision itself has been declared unconstitutional and unlawful."
Pretoria News