News24 | Judge says KZN municipality's decision to axe nine councillors was procedurally irregular

A judge in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg is of the view that uMvoti Municipality councillors expelled on allegations of absenteeism can successfully challenge the decision to axe them.

• A KZN judge is of the view that councillors expelled on allegations of absenteeism can successfully challenge a decision to axe them.
• Judge Pieter Bezuidenhout found the process to expel nine Umvoti councillors was procedurally irregular.
• He reinstated the councillors, pending a legal bid to challenge the decision to fire them.

A KwaZulu-Natal High Court judge ruled in favour of Umvoti local municipality councillors, who launched an urgent legal bid in September to be allowed to continue working, pending an application to challenge a decision to axe them. 

The KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg on Monday said the nine axed councillors had a high prospect of success in their quest to have a July 2023 decision to expel them overturned and set aside.

Judge Pieter Bezuidenhout said the mayor of Umvoti (Greytown), Philani Mavundla, should not have sat in a Special Rules and Ethics Committee, which recommended the expulsion of the councillors by the KwaZulu-Natal Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC because he [Mavundla] was the one who had laid a complaint against them initially.

The councillors, eight of whom are members of the IFP and one from the mayor's own Abantu Batho Congress (ABC), missed four consecutive council meetings before Mavundla lodged a complaint against them with the council Speaker. 

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The councillors were expelled weeks after Mavundla successfully ousted an IFP-led administration, with the assistance of the ANC, through a no-confidence vote, and took over the mayoral office.

He previously served as the deputy mayor of eThekwini but was voted out after a highly-publicised fall-out with the mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda.

Umvoti politics

Shortly after the councillors were expelled, the IFP accused Mavundla and the ANC of trying to force by-elections.

The expulsion resulted in veteran IFP member Petrus Ngubane losing his position as the mayor of Umzinyathi.

Ngubane, who was among the expelled councillors, had qualified for the district mayoral position based on his election in Umvoti.

On Monday, Bezuidenhout said:

"Further, applicants [councillors] were not granted the right to make further submissions to the third respondent [MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs] before they were expelled," the judge continued.

Bezuidenhout found the councillors could successfully argue that the lack of opportunity to make further submissions before they were expelled resulted in the process of their removal being procedurally unfair and irregular.

The judge then ruled that the decision to expel the councillors must be "stayed with immediate effect," pending the outcome of their legal bid to challenge their expulsion.

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Bezuidenhout also granted an interdict against the call for by-elections to replace the councillors. 

"…The Speaker of Umvoti Local Municipality, alternatively the First Respondent, be and is hereby directed and ordered to give Applicants proper notice of any Council Meeting to be held in respect of the Fifth Respondent [uMvoti municipality] and he or any other person shall not block Applicants from attending and participating at such Council Meeting," he ruled.

A cost order was issued against the municipality, the council, and the city manager.

An application by the affected councillors to challenge their expulsion is expected to be heard on 10 November.