Staff Reporter
The Free State High Court has ruled as illegal and invalid a special council meeting held by Metsimaholo Local Municipality councillors early this year at which key appointments were made.
The meeting, held on February 20, appointed three people to act as municipal manager as well as director for technical services and director for corporate services.
“. . . the special council meeting where the council was supposed to have appointed some officials contrary to the directive of the ExCo (Executive Council of the Free State) is unlawful and invalid,” read part of the judgment delivered by Judge Sharon Chesiwe on Tuesday.
The matter was brought to court by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Thembeni Nxangisa against the 35 councillors who sat in the ill-fated meeting.
The MEC’s application was supported by the Metsimaholo Local Municipality, which was also the first respondent to the matter.
The judgment also sanctioned those appointed to the new positions and were also listed as respondents to step down with immediate effect and further slapped them with a costs order.
“SJ Mokoena . . . is prohibited and interdicted from acting as municipal manager,” the judge said.
“MJ Ndaba . . . is prohibited and interdicted from acting as director (for) technical services.
“MJ Mkhefa . . . is prohibited and interdicted from acting as director (for) corporate services.”
The court ordered the three to vacate the offices of the municipality and not hinder municipal officials from performing their functions.
Problems at Metsimaholo started when the municipality failed to execute its legislative and executive functions, prompting the ExCo to evoke Section 139 (1) (b) of the Constitution.
This means the municipality was put under administration.
Nxangisa seconded Teboho Manele as administrator, Motsumi Mathe as acting municipal manager, Palesa Qulunga as financial advisor and Benner Moloi as acting director for corporate services.
However, some councillors did not feel comfortable with the decision and acted contrary to the directive, leading to the illegal council meeting.
Welcoming the judgment, Nxangisa said the conduct of the councillors had caused great disturbances to the functioning of the municipality and affected service delivery.
“The community has been suffering because service delivery was compromised, whilst people were focused on side issues,” the MEC said in a statement.