Mettler High Court Judgement Fixes What Should Never Have Happened

ActionSA welcomes the High Court judgment interdicting the suspension of Tshwane Municipal Manager, Mr Johann Mettler.

Importantly, the judgment of the Gauteng Division, Pretoria of the High Court relates to the ruling of the Speaker of Council and not the Executive Mayor. The Executive Mayor submitted papers to the Court outlining the statutory obligations of her office in relation to this matter, confirming her compliance with those obligations while formally recording her intention to respect the outcome of the legal proceedings. 

Notwithstanding the legal obligations of ActionSA Tshwane Executive Mayor, Dr Nasiphi Moya, to table allegations of misconduct against a senior manager, it should be correctly noted that ActionSA voted against the proposal to suspend Mr Mettler. 

In fact, it was ActionSA that tabled the recommendation in Council not to suspend Mr Mettler, a position that was ultimately supported by the Democratic Alliance and other parties.

ActionSA’s vote against the suspension should have been sufficient to prevent it from taking place. However, the leave of absence granted to a large number of DA and FF Plus councillors resulted in the now impugned ruling by the Speaker of Council to discount the votes of those councillors when they later arrived at the Council meeting.

The attempts by the DA and FF Plus to portray this matter as a political victory are shallow. The Court has merely corrected the consequences of the Speaker’s ruling in relation to councillors who chose to absent themselves from the work they are elected and paid to perform by attending Council meetings and voting on behalf of their constituents.

Accordingly, while ActionSA welcomes the judgment, it should never have been necessary in the first place. The parties that created this crisis should not claim this outcome as anything more than the correction of a problem of their own making.

ActionSA is pleased that the work of turning around the City of Tshwane will continue with Mr Mettler at the helm of the administration.

ActionSA Education: Advocates for specialized skills training and artisan schools.