The North West High Court has dismissed former Bojanala Platinum District Municipality executive mayor Matlakala Nondzaba’s bid to be reinstated.
Nondzaba approached the court on an urgent basis seeking the ANC’s decision to remove her to be set aside.
She alleged that her removal was orchestrated without due process and took the municipality, council, the IEC, the ANC and 12 other respondents to court in an attempt to overturn the decision.
Nondzaba was placed on special leave for her alleged failure on her executive oversight duty to stop corruption in the district municipality after some contractors were allegedly paid illegally, and was later removed from office in September 2023, when acting mayor Victoria Makhaula was appointed.
She said she was unfairly dismissed and had to learn about it while the ANC interviewed people to succeed her.
On Thursday, the parties appeared before the court for arguments before the matter was struck off the roll.
Her lawyer advocate Sazi Tisane told the court that Nondzaba was seeking urgent legal review of what she said was the unlawful exercise of public power.
He said Nondzaba wanted the decision to remove her to be reviewed and set aside on the grounds of non-compliance with the provisions of Section 27 of the Local Government Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998.
Tisane told the court that on July 7, there were interviews for Nondzaba’s position.
He said the proceedings were not communicated to his client and that she began hearing rumours about the interviews from concerned friends and colleagues on July 8.
The court also heard that on July 15, Nondzaba had to learn that she was to be replaced when she read a press release appointing Susan Nthangeni, as the new executive mayor.
According to her lawyer, it was only on July 30 that Nondzaba was informed officially of the decision and actions taken by the ANC.
She said on August 7, she received formal notice from the ANC to institute disciplinary proceedings against her, which has since been postponed to a date still to be determined.
The lawyer told the court that the behaviour of the ANC and the municipality was an admission that Nondzaba remains a member of the ANC in good standing and that she has
not resigned as the executive mayor or as a councillor.
He said his client was not supposed to be removed as a councillor from the records of the IEC without any prior resignation and conclusion of any disciplinary proceedings.
“Given that it is now common cause that the impugned decision to declare the applicant’s council seat vacant was in truth not preceded by any resignation or disciplinary action against her and that she was at that time still a member of the ANC.”
Nondzaba wanted the court to determine that her council seat had been effected immediately and without due process.
The judge questioned why it took her almost two weeks before she decided to interdict the ANC’s decision and struck the case from the roll due to lack of urgency.
