The Democratic Alliance (DA) unequivocally rejects the decision to place Sol Plaatje Municipality under a Section 139(1)(b) intervention and is investigating grounds for legal recourse.
It is deeply contradictory that an intervention, seemingly based on political concerns, is used to justify a governance takeover.
Today’s move to place the municipality under administration follows what we believe to be a sustained and coordinated effort by the ANC, working through the Mayor, the Speaker, and now the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Human Settlements, Bentley Vass, to engineer a political takeover of the municipality.
Critically, the MEC failed to provide substantiated reasons for the intervention in writing. This was aggravated by the Speaker also denying Council the opportunity to engage on the MEC’s proclamation by blocking our request to include this matter as a formal agenda item. This constitutes a clear violation of due process and undermines the constitutional role of Council.
There was also no proper consultation with Council prior to the imposition of the intervention, which calls into question the legality of the entire process.
The DA further condemns the conduct of the Speaker, Dipuo Peters, who refused to allow our objections to be formally recorded.
We are exploring every available legal avenue to challenge the proclamation. Any intervention must be based on genuine necessity, follow due process, and aim to restore governance, not be manipulated to serve political ends.