As the power tussle ensues in the coalition-led government at Theewaterskloof Municipality, another attempt to remove DA executive mayor Lincoln de Bruyn was thwarted.
This came after the Western Cape High Court dismissed an application for opposition parties to intervene and appeal the court’s judgment to set aside the decision of which reinstated De Bruyn.
The ruling also ordered the intervening applicants, all of whom are ANC councillors, to pay the costs of their failed application.
ANC leader in the Western Cape Legislature, Khalid Sayed, said they noted the court judgment and their legal team is “studying the judgment in greater detail”.
“It must be noted that the case was dismissed not on the merits of the case but on the basis of technicalities, so in that particular context, the ANC in TWK still maintains that Lincoln de Bruyn is not the executive mayor - he is the interim mayor. He is yet to be elected as the executive mayor.
“We will continue to pursue all mechanisms available in a democratic space, which includes the courts to ensure democracy, transparency, accountability, and due process is upheld in all municipalities across the province,” said Sayed.
Judge James Lekhuleni said: “The intervening applicants… argued that the matter is inherently urgent because it involves the exercise of a local authority’s comprehensive powers in the public interest. Additionally, they asserted that since a judgment has already been delivered, the level of urgency they cite is warranted. I disagree with these propositions.
“The applicants and the respondents were not taken by surprise when the judgment was delivered on 15 September 2024. On 8 November 2024, the registrar of this court notified the parties that the judgment regarding the main application would be pronounced on or before 18 November 2024…
“(the) intervening applicants did not request to intervene before the judgment was delivered. The suggestion that since the pronouncement of the judgment, the degree of urgency relied on by the applicants is justified is fundamentally flawed and lacks merit,” said Lekhuleni.
During November last year, De Bruyn was reinstated as the executive mayor after the court deemed his removal unconstitutional following a motion of no confidence.
The reinstatement also nullified the election of Freedom Front Plus (FF+) mayor Tienie Zimmerman.
Responding to the court ruling, De Bruyn and DA leader Tertuis Simmers welcomed the court’s decision.
“Zimmerman’s election as mayor was ruled as unconstitutional, unlawful, and invalid by the court. The court ruling halted the FF+/ANC/PA/EFF coalition’s bid to continue the municipality’s downward trajectory. The municipality descended into financial crisis which forced the provincial government to intervene in terms of Section 139 of the Constitution,” a joint statement by Simmers and De Bruyn read.
GOOD Party’s secretary-general, Brett Herron, said they hoped that the ruling would bring to an end the “months of frivolous suggestions that the mayor and Mayco are not properly elected and appointed”.
He said the ruling coalition, constituted by the DA/GOOD/Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP), could now proceed with “prioritising critical governance functions”.
“Under this coalition, residents can look forward to improved service delivery and can be assured that the municipality will avoid fruitless and wasteful expenditures, and appropriately allocate funds,” said Herron.
Enquiries to the FF+ were not answered by deadline.