Ekurhuleni Council Chief Whip Khetha Shandu (left) and speaker Raymond Dhlamini. Photo: Johan Britons
- Ekurhuleni council chairman Raymond Dhlamini has filed an urgent court request in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to halt a special council session scheduled for January 30.
- Dhlamini’s is petitioning the High Court to stop the special council session because the meeting was illegally called by the Ekurhuleni city manager, Dr. Imogen Mashazi.
- The request will be urgently heard on Monday morning before the special council session.
The district attorney and Ekurhuleni council chairman, Raymond Dhlamini, filed an urgent request in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to stop a special council meeting called by the city manager for January 30.
According to the DA and Dhlamini, the meeting was illegally organized by the Ekurhuleni city manager, Dr. Imogen Mashazi.
Mashazi wrote to councilors on Friday stating that substantive reasons had been provided for the special session.
He was asked to convene the session of the minority parties represented on the Ekurhuleni council. The same political parties had presented motions of no confidence in Dhlamini, whose hearing was scheduled for last Thursday.
That Thursday the session collapsed after the political parties fought inside the council chambers in Germiston. Dhlamini postponed the session, much to the chagrin of several political parties.
In court documents seen by News24, Dhlamini requested that the court ban Monday’s council session until it hears a full application seeking to overturn Mashazi’s “illegal” decisions.
Dhlamini said he is governed by the Municipal Structures Act to call council sessions instead of the city manager.
The speaker explained in the affidavit that Mashazi’s powers to act had not yet been activated as she had entertained councilors who requested that the council session be rescheduled.
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He said that a meeting of whip bosses would be organized for each party to determine why the council meeting had turned into chaos.
The speaker said that the reasons for a special session, in his opinion, had not yet been fulfilled at that time.
Mashazi had no basis for asking for a special session, Dhlamini added.
“There is no basis for the city manager to call or preside over a meeting under the Municipal Structures Act. The city manager had no authority to act as he did. His powers were not activated because fundamental jurisdictional requirements were to be fulfilled.
“I was informed that the city manager’s decision to call the meeting was irrational from a procedural point of view. He acted illegally by calling the meeting for January 30,” Dhlamini said.
Mashazi is cited in the court request, who, according to Dhlamini’s request, had refused to rescind his council session letter.
Mashazi’s lawyers have stated that she believed she had the powers to call the extraordinary session of the council.
