The chief whip of the Tshwane council has lashed out at Gauteng Cogta MEC Lebogang Maile following the suspension of speaker Katlego Mathebe, insisting that he had no right to interject himself in the internal processes of the council.

Chief whip and DA member Christo van den Heever launched a scathing attack on Maile on Thursday afternoon, accusing him of violating the Constitution.

“It is clear that the MEC has overstepped his boundaries by taking punitive disciplinary action against the speaker of council without following the rules of natural justice,” Van den Heever said in a statement.

READ: Maile suspends Vasco da Gama and Katlego Mathebe without pay

“He has no right to interject himself in the internal processes of the Tshwane council.

“By doing so, the MEC is in violation of the prescripts of the Constitution, which confers on municipalities the right to govern, on their own initiative, the local government affairs of their communities, while limiting the national and provincial governments from impeding those rights.”

Van den Heever was reacting to Maile’s decision to suspend Mathebe as he held the view that the speaker had breached the council’s code of conduct.

Maile’s rationale behind Mathebe’s six-month suspension without pay follows a special council sitting where she refused to bend to calls by the ANC and EFF to change the order in which motions of no confidence would be heard.

The sitting, which was held earlier this month, was meant to deal with motions against the mayor, speaker, chair of chairs and acting speaker.

According to the sequence of the motions as set out by Mathebe, her motion would have been heard last, allowing her to preside over the other three before recusing herself.

The ANC and EFF, who called for the special sitting, wanted Mathebe’s motion to be heard first.

“Clearly, the speaker’s overall conduct was blatantly motivated to collapse the entire council proceedings to safeguard her self-interest at the expense of the interest of the residents of Tshwane,” Maile said.

Openly waging war

Van den Heever accused Maile of openly waging war, on behalf of the ANC.

“If the MEC has concerns, he should utilise the legislated and regulated channels as determined by chapter 3 of the Constitution to engage with the City in a meaningful and co-operative manner.”

The chief whip also refuted comments that Maile had arranged a meeting with him and the council’s multi-party whippery committee following Mathebe’s suspension.

Katlego Mathebe. (Deaan Vivier)

“Let it be noted that no such notice has been received, nor any request to issue such notice to convene a meeting of this nature,” Van den Heever said.

He added that Cogta had no jurisdiction over the multi-party whippery.

“The office of the chief whip has the responsibility of maintaining the discipline of councillors, and asserts that council has not established any special investigative committee to investigate the conduct of the speaker of council, nor has a report [been] served at council, any of its committees, nor the multi-party whippery into any allegations of misconduct on the speaker’s behalf.”

Bullying tactics

Following Maile’s decision to suspend Mathebe, as well as former Johannesburg DA speaker Vasco da Gama, DA leader John Steenhuisen said the party would be filing an urgent court application for alleged political harassment.

In his sharply-worded statement, Steenhuisen said the DA would not give into bullying tactics by Maile, adding that their lawyers would review the legal merits of the two councillors’ suspension, News24 previously reported.

The DA leader, through an attorney, also wrote to Maile, inviting him to retract his “unlawful” decision, “failing which we will apply for personal and punitive costs against Maile,” Steenhuisen said.

Maile said the decision to suspend both councillors was consistent with the law and he was prepared to go to the courts to defend the decision.

He added that the decision was “impartial to avoid any accusation of tilting the balance of forces in councils to favour a particular political party”.

“It is imperative to note that these decisions are based on strengthening local government by ensuring those elected into positions of responsibility carry out their work in the best interest of the electorate,” Maile said.

The ANC says the government has no plans to retrench staff at ailing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) despite referring to substantial restructuring.

The party held a post-lekgotla media briefing on Wednesday to outline the resolutions it had taken over the weekend.

Its economic committee chairperson Enoch Godongwana said restructuring did not necessarily follow retrenchments.

Godongwana added when the government talked of restructuring Eskom by separating generation and transmission, it meant “transmission must be available to everybody on a non-discriminatory basis”.

“So, you are separating generation to be owned by Eskom, so that all other generators must have equal access to transmissions. That is restructuring. It does not necessarily mean retrenchments.”

ANC secretary general Ace Magashule earlier read a statement that focused on the economy and state-owned entities.

The national executive committee (NEC) of the ANC had resolved that SAA, which cancelled nearly 20 domestic and international flights on Tuesday, should be retained as the national airline.

READ: Govt looking for funds and a partner to keep SAA in the skies

Magashule said this would require substantial restructuring, with Cabinet taking the operational decisions needed to achieve it.

“The NEC resolved that the ANC will continue to be guided by the vision outlined in its ‘Ready to Govern’ policy document, which stated that the balance of the evidence will guide our structuring and restructuring of state-owned companies and our decisions on when we need to increase or reduce public ownership in order to advance our economic programme,” he added. 

SAA is currently under business rescue, with the government seemingly unable to raise the R2bn needed for a bailout.

Magashule said the ANC was of the view that public enterprises needed to play a developmental role, especially through their production of goods and services.

“There should be a proper assessment of public enterprises’ strategic importance for the developmental agenda. Its mandates should be clear, costed and monitored consistently to ensure the successful restructuring of programmes,” he added. 

Last year, Cosatu parliamentary co-ordinator Matthew Parks said there was growing fear about possible full-blown retrenchments at SOEs due to government’s resuscitation attempts.

He clarified this after Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan released a paper on the road map for the future of Eskom, which promoted a diversified energy mix for the country. The ANC resolutions are in support of this road map. 

READ: Cutting costs and unbundling: All you need to know about Eskom’s rescue plan

“Labour’s fear is that in fact it may increase costs by requiring more CEOs, management and boards. Workers fear that it may lead to full-blown retrenchments and privatisation through the back door. Any attempts to retrench workers will lead to massive strikes by not only the NUM [National Union of Mineworkers], but the entire federation and its affiliates,” Parks warned.

In a blistering complaint to the Judicial Service Commission, the deputy judge president (DJP) in the Western Cape has alleged that her boss, Judge President John Hlophe, wanted certain appointments in a nuclear case in which former president Jacob Zuma was a respondent.

Deputy Judge President Patricia Goliath claimed, in a 14-page affidavit, that Hlophe wanted judges who were perceived as “favourably disposed” to Zuma to preside over the so-called Earthlife Africa case involving the nuclear deal.

She said Hlophe told her criticism against the former president about the nuclear deal was “unwarranted”.

“He attempted to influence me to allocate the matter to two judges he perceived to be favourably disposed to the former president,” she said in the affidavit.

“I immediately dismissed the idea and referred him to a Daily Maverick article in which negative aspersions were cast on his allocation in another matter. Although unhappy, he did not pursue the matter and we agreed upon the two judges subsequently appointed to hear the matter.”

She raised the issue when making the claim that the judge president (JP) accused her of not supporting him.

“I accept that on several occasions we had disagreements. I sought on those occasion[s] to uphold and protect the Constitution in keeping with my oath, especially when his conduct fell short of an acceptable standard.”

READ MORE: Hlophe v Goliath: Scathing complaint lodged against Cape’s most senior judge

In the Western Cape High Court in October 2015, Earthlife Africa and the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute (Safcei) challenged government’s decision to buy 9.6 GW of nuclear power without debating it in Parliament first, thus flouting democratic processes, Fin24 reported at the time.

The applicants argued in court papers that the government could not afford the mooted R1 trillion nuclear price tag, adding that it acted in secret when it signed an agreement with Russia as part of the procurement plans for a nuclear build programme.

The government, however, countered that South Africa needed nuclear energy as a form of base load power as coal-fired power stations were being phased out.

At the time, Zuma stated that nuclear energy would only be procured at a pace and scale the government could afford.

Not the first complaint

In 2017, Judge Lee Bozalek ruled that the government’s attempts to secure the nuclear energy were unlawful, including the initial determination to procure nuclear energy in 2013, the co-operation agreements signed with Russia, the US and South Korea, as well as former energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson’s decision to hand over the procurement of nuclear energy to Eskom in 2016.

It is not the first time that a complaint has been raised about Hlophe.

News24 previously reported that it was alleged that he tried to influence Constitutional Court judges in a case involving Zuma.

A complaint was laid by the full Constitutional Court Bench after he allegedly approached justices Bess Nkabinde and Christopher Jafta to improperly influence them in a case before the apex court.

A tribunal was set up at the recommendation of a subcommittee of the Judicial Service Commission in 2013.

It has not yet commenced.

Goliath’s claims were part of a larger complaint which includes allegations of verbal abuse, victimisation, preferential treatment of his wife, Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe, and even the physical assault of an unnamed subordinate.

But attorney Barnabas Xulu, who represents Hlophe and his wife, said the complaint contained gossip, rumours and information “obtained from the grapevine”, adding that it brought disrepute to the court.

Xulu added that the complaint had “nothing to do with judicial misconduct but a series of gossips, rumour-mongering and information allegedly obtained from the grapevine”.

According to him, the deputy judge president “obviously disagrees with the management of the division which is solely reserved for the JP”.

Xulu said it was “well known” that because of this, tension existed between Goliath and Hlophe and that it was “unfortunate” that the complaint, “rather than raise legitimate issues that improve this performance, brings disrepute to the court”.

Hlophe, he said, would “demonstrate at the right time, before the correct forum, that the complaint revealed a deeply worrying standard of judicial competence from a member of the Bench in the position of the DJP”, adding that it would be unconstitutional for a judge president to allocate cases to judges in the division based on the date of their appointment.

Hlophe intended to show there is no merit to the complaint which, Xulu said, brought the administration of justice “into serious disrepute” based on irrelevant material and “vague and embarrassing” information.

The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) says it is willing to assist the family of a 13-year-old Parktown Boys’ High School pupil who drowned at a Grade 8 orientation camp in the North West last week. 

Enoch Mpianzi went missing at the camp, which took place at Nyati Bush and Riverbreak Lodge last Wednesday. His body was found on Friday.

Mpianzi was last seen when a makeshift raft which he and other boys were using overturned on Crocodile River on the first day of the camp.

READ | Parktown Boys camp tragedy: Enoch Mpianzi was so excited about school trip, he couldn’t sleep

The SAHRC’s Buang Jones told News24 on Monday that the commission was keen to provide legal assistance to the family after it indicated that it would like the Chapter 9 body to help. 

Jones said the commission would meet with the family to give them an opportunity to raise their concerns about the case. The meeting is expected to take place on Monday, Jones said.

“The meeting is to give them an opportunity to ventilate their concerns and give them an opportunity to explore the remedies they are seeking. But we stand ready to provide legal support to the family,” Jones said. 

Full instructions

Jones said the commission was also ready to mediate between the Gauteng Department of Education, the school and the family.

Further details about the meeting would be released one the commission has received full instructions from the family, he added. 

READ | Boy seated next to Enoch Mpianzi on bus was the first to notice he was missing

Parktown Boys’ High School has come under fire after the incident and has been widely criticised for the way it handled the case.

The criticisms relate to questions about why it took the school several hours to report the disappearance of the boy – both to his parents and to other parents whose children were on the camp. Questions have also been raised about whether the boys were wearing life jackets at the time they took part in the “water activity”. 

News24 visited the family home in Malvern, Johannesburg, on Friday evening where Mpianzi’s uncle, Sebastian Kodiemoka, said a boy who sat next to Mpianzi on the bus while on the way to the camp was the first to notice that he was missing and alerted teachers.

Kodiemoka said the family was told that the boy said Mpianzi was with the rest of the group earlier in the day and was also present at lunch at the lodge on Wednesday.

READ IN FULL | Parktown Boys’ High School releases statement following death of pupil at orientation camp

Sunday Times reported that the family could not afford a life jacket which was part of the items pupils were expected to bring along.

“A life jacket was required from the parents. We didn’t have money for that. It was for them (school staff and organisers) to decide if he could participate, because it is them who took them to the site,” Kodiemoka told the publication.

EWN also reported that Mpianzi did not wear a life jacket because the boys were only supposed to have been in the shallow water, according to lodge manager Anton Knoetze. 

NOTE: News24 previously reported that the uncle’s name was Sebastian Kodie Motha. The correct spelling of the surname has since been confirmed as Kodiemoka.