COURT RULES: GCINIWE WON’T ASSUME CEO DUTIES FOR NOW

MBABANE – The High Court has endorsed the minister of Housing and Urban Development’s undertaking that Gciniwe Fakudze will not assume the CEO’s duties for now.

The undertaking is now an order of court and it will be in force until the matter, in which the Municipal Council of Mbabane is challenging her appointment, is finalised. They want her appointment to be reviewed and set aside. The matter is awaiting judgment. However, the municipal council filed a notice of set down on Friday, seeking to endorse the undertaking that Fakudze would not assume her duties until the matter was finalised by the court. Mangaliso Nkomondze of Nkomondze Attorneys, who represents the municipal council, told the court yesterday that the respondents were making the matter very had, yet it was straightforward.

He explained that they had made an undertaking to preserve the status quo. Nkomondze stated that they had asked for an interim order in the notice of motion in terms of which Fakudze would have been interdicted from assuming her duties while the matter was pending. However, he said they had fears, which materialised even within 24 hours of filing the notice of set down on Friday. According to Nkomondze, they feared that the Minister of Housing and Urban Development Appolo Maphalala would not live up to the undertaking.

He said, first of all, the minister reduced the undertaking to an email, which the council felt was not formal enough and asked that it be in the form of a letter. He said that was done and they were of the idea that the minister would maintain the status quo. Nkomondze said if that was the case, there would be no need to go to court to endorse the undertaking.“However, within 48 hours, the minister was quoted in the Observer disregarding the undertaking. That made our situation precarious,” said Nkomondze.Minister Maphalala denied what he was quoted as having said. The minister was said to have responded to the author of the article during an interview, by saying he would not respond because the matter was still pending in court and he would await guidance from the court.It was stated in the article that the minister said he would not confirm if Fakudze would be at work yesterday or she would not. 

Denied

Nkomondze said inasmuch as the minister denied what he was quoted as having said, ‘your guess is as good as mine as to who is telling the truth’. He said they were reasonable in believing what they saw in newspapers. He said they asked themselves why they had to risk hearing what the minister would say next. “Why not just endorse the undertaking so that whosever acts against it would know that they are breaking the law,” said Nkomondze.Assistant Attorney General Mbuso Simelane has informed the court that he had read the newspapers over the weekend, but where the minister said what he was quoted as having said.

According to Simelane, the minister was very firm in that he understood the matter to be before court and would await the judgment. He said the minister stated that he would not put the judge under pressure. Simelane said Fakudze was nowhere near the municipal council. He said he had spoken to the minister and he denied what he was quoted to have said. “He said commenting on the matter would be contemptuous and said they were waiting for guidance from the court in order to move forward. The minister says he does not know where that (he would not confirm that Fakudze would be at work or not yesterday) comes from,” said Simelane.

He admitted that they made an undertaking for Fakudze not to assume her duties just yet. Simelane said it was now that they wanted the undertaking to be endorsed as an order of court.
He said they were opposed to that because it was the attorney general who was making the undertaking, ‘so we did not need to approach the court to endorse it’.Simelane further told the court that employees of the municipal council were allegedly being harassed over this matter and they would need counselling. He applied that the matter be removed from the court roll. However, Judge Maseko ruled in favour of the municipal council and endorsed the undertaking as an order of court.

The notice of set down stated that the matter was set to be heard yesterday 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,” read the municipality’s notice. In a letter that was signed by Simelane, in response to letters of the former and emails exchanged by the parties thus far, he stated that: “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,” reads part of the letter addressed to Nkomondze Attorneys.

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