COUNCIL RUNS TO COURT TO STOP GCINIWE

MBABANE – While Gciniwe Fakudze is expected to assume her duties as CEO of the Municipal Council of Mbabane, the municipality has rushed to court in a bid to stop her from doing so.

The Municipal Council of Mbabane is awaiting judgment from the High Court in the matter in which it is challenging Fakudze’s appointment as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The councillors want Fakudze’s appointment to be reviewed and set aside. The municipal council has since filed a notice of set down, while the judgment is yet to be delivered and wants an order to be issued to prevent Fakudze from assuming her new role as the CEO of the Municipal Council of Mbabane.

Notice

The notice states that the matter is set to be heard today for an order in the following: “By consent, granting the applicant an order in terms of prayer seven and eight of the notice of motion dated July 17, 2024,” reads the municipality’s notice. In prayer seven, the councillors want the court to interdict the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Appolo Maphalala, from doing anything in furtherance of the appointment of Fakudze as CEO. In the prayer, they wanted the court to interdict Fakudze from assuming the duties of the CEO, pending finalisation of the matter. The minister is opposing the grant of certain orders in the main application. He wants the status quo to remain in order to give the court a chance to prepare and deliver its ruling.

According to the minister, the application by the municipal council is an abuse of court process ‘as at the time of hearing the matter, the undertaking given by the minister is in full swing, thus may the application be dismissed with costs at attorney and client scale’. On Friday, the attorney general wrote to the municipal council’s attorneys, Nkomondze Attorneys, regarding the matter. The letter that was signed by Assistant Attorney General Mbuso Simelane, was in response to letters of the former and emails exchanged by the parties thus far. The letter addressed to Nkomondze Attorneys reads: “Per your requests, our clients give an assurance that while the High Court matter awaits judgment from Judge Nkosinathi Maseko, they will maintain the status quo and await delivery thereof regarding the resumption of duty for Ms Fakudze as CEO.

Application

“In the premise, they are not consenting to an order to that effect as they feel that it will be justifying the impropriety of your clients’ application. “The undertaken is given on the strength that the honourable judge has heard arguments on the matter, thus they will respect him, hence there is no need to set the matter down. In any event when the matter is set on the 19th instant, the undertaking will be in full effect,” reads the letter. The attorney general also stated that should the matter be set as intimated, they shall ask for costs at attorney and own client scale. “On another note, the Housing Ministry is concerned that they are receiving reports (subject to investigation) that your clients are bullying the municipality staff over the CEO issue and holding frequent special/extraordinary meetings in order to discredit the ongoing High Court case. One such meeting was set for Thursday (15/08/2024) at 14:30hours,” further reads the letter to Nkomondze Attorneys.

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