The ANC in the province has welcomed the recent judgment by the Western Cape High Court against the DA’s urgent application to appeal an original judgment which rendered a meeting that suspended the party’s “absconding” Cederberg municipality councillors to be valid.
This was after the court ruled to strike the application off the roll with costs.
Judge Diedre Kusevitsky said there had been a tendency to set matters that are not urgent down on the urgent roll, in order to “jump the queue and secure preferential dates”.
“The matter was considered by two judges on urgent duty, to have not been urgent, and the parties were advised accordingly and it was ordered.
“The application to an urgent court was defective. For all of the above reasons, the application for leave to appeal must fail,” she said.
The ANC in the province said that the judgment was a vindication of the actions taken by deployees in the council who acted against the “ill-disciplined” councillors and followed the laws and policies of suspending them.
ANC provincial secretary Neville Delport said that the DA thought that “running to court” to appeal the matter was going to result in the “rubber stamping of the laziness” of their public representatives.
“All municipalities hold a significant responsibility to serve their constituents and advance their best interests. The ANC remains deeply committed to promoting good governance, transparency, and accountability at all levels of government,” he said.
Former Cederberg speaker, Maxwell Heins added that during his term, he acted in accordance and with, “strict guidance by the Municipal Structures Act and Rules of Order for councillors, as supported by the high court ruling by the outcome of the court case”.
DA constituency head in Cederberg, Andricus van der Westhuizen said that the DA is studying the ruling.
“We are grateful that the application, despite this ruling, already served its purpose, which was to force the ANC/Patriotic Alliance to accept defeat in Cederberg Municipality.
“The purpose of this court application was to compel the Speaker, Maxwell Heins, to call a meeting and allow these motions to serve and, should he not do so, to hold him liable for costs in his personal capacity,” he said.
The municipality did not respond to requests for comment by the deadline on Sunday.
Cape Times