Urgent High Court bid to can ‘political’ jobs

Update

KNYSNA NEWS - The Democratic Alliance has launched an urgent application in the Western Cape High Court to set aside the changes to the staff structure that enabled what the party says is the "illegal" appointments in the offices of political office bearers.

The papers were served on 16 respondents on Monday 24 October.

Dr Dion George MP, the DA Constituency Head of Knysna, said in a statement released on Friday 21 October that the application is aimed at terminating the contracts of the "deployed cadres" who were appointed to start work at the beginning of October. In a twist to the saga, the Acting Municipal Manager of Knysna, Johannes Jonkers, one of the respondents in the legal action, resigned on Monday*.

Municipality unable to respond

Knysna Municipality spokesperson Christopher Bezuidenhoudt said in a statement that the municipality received a notice of motion from the DA on Monday 24 October.

"Unfortunately, the acting Municipal Manager, Mr Johannes Jonkers, submitted his resignation to the Executive Mayor [Aubrey Tsengwa] later in the afternoon (Monday 24 October).

"He did not cite any reasons for this resignation except that it was with immediate effect. Matters of litigation are dealt with under delegated authority. In the absence of an Acting Municipal Manager, we cannot at this point in time respond to what actions the council will take," said Bezuidenhoudt.

He added that an ordinary meeting of the council is scheduled for today, Thursday 27 October, following which "more information may become available".

An urgent application

The DA's urgent application aims to declare the Knysna Council's motion of 16 September, in which the seven people were appointed "as inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid".

George said in a statement on Tuesday 25 October: "Our action seeks to set aside the changes to the staff structure that enabled the illegal appointments and to terminate the contracts of the deployed cadres."

The DA also seeks that Tsengwa, Deputy Mayor Alberto Marbi and Speaker Mncedisi Skosana be declared personally liable for the "irregular or fruitless and wasteful, expenditure" related to the appointments, and that the trio pay the costs of the application in their personal capacities.

"The DA will not stand by while the Coalition of Corruption appoints its cronies and expects the people of Knysna to pay for it. The temporary staff budget was intended to fund high season employment for unemployed Knysna youth, not for nepotism and lining the pockets of high earning political appointments, courtesy of their political patrons," George said.

Dion George

High court action

George said that the High Court action was set in motion after Jonkers had not given any commitment to reverse the appointments and, because of this, "the DA will launch its legal challenge in the Western Cape High Court".

According to the same statement, the DA wrote to Jonkers after council made "unlawful changes" to its organogram and appointed seven "political cronies" to the municipality at an unbudgeted cost of R3m per annum.

"The AMM responded that he had obtained legal advice and had informed the relevant parties. His response was obtuse and did not indicate whether the illegal appointments would be terminated," said George.

Speaker Mncedisi Skosana taking his councillor's oath.

Provincial intervention

Western Cape Minister of Local Government Anton Bredell confirmed receiving information "from whistleblowers", and the Department of Local Government is currently preparing letters to be delivered to stakeholders, according to Wouter Kriel, the Minister's spokesman.

Kriel added that the department was hoping that Section 5 letters, requesting all information relating to the alleged unlawful appointments, would be delivered this week.

"The department will then assess the feedback to determine further action. We will be writing to the speaker, copying the mayor and the AMM," said Kriel.

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