The City of Tshwane remains under administration pending a court battle in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance Lebogang Maile has petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal to appeal the Pretoria High Court ruling, dismissing their appeal against the ruling declaring the decision to put the City of Tshwane under administration was illegal. The city was placed under administration on the 4th of March.

On Wednesday – the Democratic Alliance (DA) celebrated their victory in the Pretoria High Court against Maile, when his appeal against an earlier ruling, declaring the decision to put the city under administration, was dismissed.

The DA prepared to call a council meeting to elect a new mayor. The process was stopped when Maile announced he petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeals in Bloemfontein to review the High Court’s decision.

“We believe that enforcing the judgment is not in the best interest of the citizens of Tshwane, we have seen the good work that the administrators have done. They brought about stability and service delivery is improving, the financial situation is improving, they are putting systems in place and we believe while we are waiting for the Constitutional Court to make a final determination on this matter we should not disturb service delivery, therefore we will appeal,” says Maile.

DA’s mayoral candidate, Randall Williams, disagrees saying the legal shenanigans are affecting the residents of the city the most.

“It means we are currently not councillors, we cannot go ahead with a council meeting and the administrators are still in office. The judgment itself that states that if the un-elected administrators stay in office that the residents will be irreparably harmed, that judgment has been suspended. So the irreparable harm as the court found, continues,” says Williams

The Supreme Court of Appeals indicated that they will hear the case as a matter of urgency.

In this video below Maile gives reasons for suspending DA Councillors: