The FF Plus welcomes the Constitutional Court's ruling today that the Gauteng provincial government's decision to place the Tshwane Metro Council under administration from the 4th of March 2020 was unlawful and unfounded.
The party demands that the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Lebogang Maile, must be dismissed for the abuse of his powers as MEC to benefit the ANC in the Tshwane Metro Council.
Maile clearly abused his power in the Tshwane debacle to undermine a local government that is not under ANC control.
This unlawful administration process is the sole reason why the international credit rating agency Moody's recently downgraded the Metro's credit rating.
Before today's ruling, several other courts had already declared the administration order unlawful and restored the coalition government to power, however, the damage that was done will remain part of the challenges that the Metro has to overcome in the next few years.
Before Maile's unlawful administration order, the coalition government had succeeded in balancing the Metro's books, which showed a profit; but in stark contrast to that, the administrator left the Metro with a R2 billion budget deficit for the 2020/21 financial year.
The FF Plus will carefully examine the Constitutional Court's ruling and then decide what further action should be taken against Maile.
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