Gauteng MEC Lebogang Maile says he's consulting the premier and the executive committee on a way forward regarding his department's intervention in Tshwane.
Maile was responding to the three judgments handed over by the high court, supreme court and the Constitutional Court on his intervention in Tshwane which saw the municipality being put under administration which the apex court found to have been unlawful.
The court ruled that the Gauteng government's decision last year to dissolve the City of Tshwane, even though there were “exceptional circumstances”, was still unlawful.
Addressing a press conference in Sandton on Wednesday, Maile said he will be consulting premier David Makhura and the province's executive committee on the order by the Constitutional Court that he must invoke his powers to conduct a full investigation into the causes of the dysfunctionality in the capital which informed his decision to intervene last year.
He said the province derives “no pleasure in intervening in any municipality” as that on its own is a burden.
“I now have been directed by the ConCourt to investigate... I will take this to exco as I need the view of the premier and other colleagues in exco on how we move forward with regards to this,” Maile said.
He said the team of administrators sent to Tshwane were “technically proficient, qualified and skilled”.
“We would like to categorically refute and dismiss the constant, unfounded attacks on the competence and integrity of the team of administrators deployed in Tshwane for the duration of the intervention,” Maile said.
The high court on Monday ordered Maile to appoint a person or a committee to investigate the cause of the deadlock at the municipal council which made it unable to elect a mayor, pass a budget and vote on the appointment of a city manager, among others.
The Tshwane council, led by the DA, had been unable to convene and was dissolved after months of turbulence and instability, which saw council meetings continuously collapse as a result of councillors from the ANC and the EFF not attending or walking out.
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