Durban - Former Umgeni Water Board members fired by Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, have argued in the Pietermartizburg High Court that the public will suffer “irreparable harm” if the new interim board is not immediately disbanded.
Former board members - Visvin Reddy, Siboniso Shabalala, William Mapena, Teboho Nkhahle, Nompumelelo Chamane, Mbali Ndlovu, Simonsenkosi Chamane, Suleman Badat and Thandwa Mthembu - brought an application to have the interim board urgently interdicted from assuming office and performing functions, and to interdict Sisulu’s decision to appoint the board.
The respondents in the matter are Sisulu, who has opposed the matter, Umgeni Water and members of the new board.
The matter was argued last Friday and judgment has been reserved.
The applicants argued that the matter was “undeniably urgent” contrary to the minister’s assertion that it was not so. They said Sisulu’s attack in court papers on the urgency of the matter was “enigmatic” and conceptually flawed.
“The minister is hell-bent on implementing the unlawful decision to appoint the interim board if no interdict is granted,” the applicants said.
“The decision to terminate the board is substantively irrational; it is also procedurally irrational. The decision to appoint an interim board is ultra vires the minister’s powers in terms of the Water Services Act,” the applicants argued.
The applicants argued that there was a “reasonable apprehension of irreparable harm” if the interdict was not granted.
“The irreparable harm is not only to the applicants but to the public, who will have to be saddled with unlawful decisions which will be taken by the interim board if it is allowed to assume office. Once the interim board takes a decision, the clock cannot be turned back insofar as those decisions are concerned,” the applicants argued.
Sisulu had averred that the reason for disbanding the board was because of the failure of previous minister, Gugile Nkwinti, to obtain Cabinet approval before appointing the board.
In court papers filed on Sisulu’s behalf, director-general Mbulelo Tshangana said in his affidavit that the applicant’s allegation in court papers that the act did not make provision for the appointment of an interim board was “without any merit whatsoever”.
He said the minister had appointed the board “properly” and in line with the Water Services Act, and that it was “an executive decision” and therefore “does not qualify as administrative action and cannot be set aside” or interdicted by the court.
The Mercury