Sports, arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie’s decision to dissolve the National Arts Council was irrational and baseless, and its implementation risked irreparable harm to the NAC’s functioning, the Pretoria High Court has ruled.
The court ordered that the council be reinstated pending a full review, securing a major victory for the applicants in their challenge against McKenzie’s purge of the NAC leadership.
It also slapped the minister with a cost order of the urgent application, including the costs of two counsel.
The reinstated council, which includes Adv Twain Ngwenya, poet Zolani Mkiva, showbiz figure Vusi Leeuw and Pamela Ndlovu, say their priority is to resume their statutory responsibilities, restore governance continuity and provide strategic oversight of the institution.
Judge Anthony Peter Millar granted the interim interdict on Thursday, effectively preventing the minister and his department from taking further steps to implement the dissolution or to start or continue the appointment of a replacement council while the review application is pending.
The ruling returns the 24-person council, except for the acting chief executive and chief financial officer, to the arts funding body after its members argued that McKenzie’s May 25 decision was unlawful, unconstitutional and procedurally unfair.
The applicants told the court the minister had acted irrationally by dissolving the council just four days before it was due to hold a special meeting to deal with the very issues he had instructed it to urgently address.
In papers before the court, the reinstated council members said they were not challenging the minister’s power under the National Arts Council Act to dissolve the council, but the way he exercised that power.
“The complaint is that the power was exercised unlawfully, irrationally, and without affording the council a meaningful opportunity to be heard,” the court papers state.
Millar found that McKenzie’s dissolution had left the NAC idle, with no statutory scheme through which it could operate, and warned that the summary dissolution had subverted the governance structure established by Parliament for the arts body.
McKenzie announced the immediate dissolution of the council in May following a long-running dispute over unpaid employee performance bonuses dating back three financial years between 2019 and 2022. At the time, he said the council had failed to act urgently to resolve the labour dispute despite a ministerial directive.
The minister also cited concerns over procurement decisions, including spending on recruitment services and mobile devices for council members, saying the expenditure appeared inconsistent with the NAC’s financial constraints. He said his department would probe the procurement concerns and refer any evidence of financial misconduct or irregular expenditure to the relevant authorities.
But the council members argued that McKenzie had effectively sabotaged the governance process he had initiated. They said his April 22 correspondence to the former chair had requested that the council urgently convene a special meeting to consider settling the historical bonus dispute, only for him to terminate the process before the council could make the statutory decision he had directed it to undertake.
The applicants further said they were never told that the minister was considering dissolving the council and were denied an opportunity, individually or collectively, to make representations before their appointments were terminated.
They also said procurement allegations were never put to the council for explanation before being relied upon as grounds for dissolution.
McKenzie and department spokesperson Stacey-Lee Khojane had not responded to questions sent to them at the time of going to print.
- Pretoria High Court ruled that Minister Gayton McKenzie's decision to dissolve the National Arts Council (NAC) was irrational and baseless, ordering its reinstatement pending a full review.
- The court barred the minister from further steps to dissolve the council or appoint replacements, citing procedural unfairness and constitutional issues.
- The reinstated 24-member NAC aims to resume statutory duties, restore governance continuity, and provide strategic oversight of arts funding.
- McKenzie cited unresolved labor disputes and procurement concerns as reasons for dissolution, but the council argued he thwarted the governance process by acting before the council could address these issues.
- The court found that the dissolution left the NAC nonfunctional and subverted its parliamentary governance, imposing costs on the Minister for the legal challenge.
