The legal fallout from last week’s dramatic Umvoti Municipality council meeting has intensified, with lawyers for ABC councillors Mfundo Masondo and Lindokuhle Zondi formally demanding full compliance with a High Court order reinstating the councillors and nullifying several previous council meetings. In a letter addressed to Umvoti Municipality, Speaker Ntombi Ngubane and senior municipal officials, seen byThe Witness, attorney Surendra Singh said the court order was obtained after Ngubane wrote to the ABC councillors instructing them to produce a court order confirming their status. Ngubane had informed Masondo and Zondi that they were no longer members of the council after their party wrote to her office stating that the two councillors’ membership cards had been terminated by the ABC.
The Witnesshas also seen the Pietermaritzburg High Court order, handed down by Judge Rishi Seegobin last Friday, directing Umvoti Municipality to allow Masondo and Zondi to attend and participate fully in all council and committee meetings. The ruling follows chaos at last week’s council sitting, where proceedings descended into disorder. Masondo and Zondi were allegedly manhandled, water was thrown, and firearms were reportedly drawn by bodyguards after the two councillors were instructed to leave the meeting.
The court also declared that all meetings held on November 6 and 25, and December 8 and 11, were unlawful, with all resolutions and decisions taken at those meetings set aside and declared to be of no force or effect. In addition, the court interdicted the municipality and the speaker from withholding the councillors’ salaries or any remuneration due to them, and ordered the municipality to provide additional security for ABC councillors holding office. Legal costs were awarded against both the municipality and the speaker, with the order operating with immediate effect.
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ALO READ |Political chaos grips uMvoti Municipality as alliances shift again Singh further demanded that the municipality urgently provide a comprehensive list of all decisions and resolutions taken at the unlawful meetings, together with the agendas and official minutes for each sitting. The municipality has been given until tomorrow to comply with the court order and the demands set out in the letter.
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