UPM brings action to ensure Makana court judgment enforced

The Unemployed Peoples’ Movement, which recently succeeded in its high court application to have the Makana municipal council dissolved, has decided to oppose the council’s decision to appeal the judgment, and will bring its own application to have the judgment immediately enforced.

UPM chairperson Sikhumbuzo Soxujwa yesterday condemned the municipality’s decision to appeal the judgment, which was scathing about the municipality’s inability to meet its constitutional obligations in terms of providing basic services to its citizens.

Judge Igna Stretch ordered the provincial executive to immediately dissolve council and appoint an administrator pending an election.

Both the Makana council and the provincial executive have indicated they intend to appeal the judgment. An appeal usually suspends the operation of the judgment.

However, the UPM’s lawyer, Brin Brody, on Monday confirmed they intended bringing a court application to ensure the judgment was implemented.

“Such an application can be brought where it is believed exceptional circumstance require the judgment be implemented pending an appeal,” Brody said.

He said the exceptional circumstances they would cite would include that the situation with regard to water, sewage, waste disposal and infrastructure and general delivery of services had become worse, not better.

Soxujwo said the decision by the “ANC elites” to appeal the judgment proved there was no real desire for change or improvement.

“It is a decision that the people of this town reject.

“The decision is not consistent with the wishes of the people and is oozing with political arrogance.”

He said the UPM had joined hands with the city’s Business Forum, the Makhanda Residents’ Association, United Front and the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) to fight the decision to appeal the judgment.

“People are coming together as friends and comrades, white and black, rich and poor, conservative and radical, all inspired by a common vision of a better city for all.”

He rejected Makana mayor Mzukisi Mpahlwa’s claim that the municipality had turned the corner and that management of the city had improved dramatically since 2014.

He said there were “fields of potholes, a water crisis, staggering mismanagement of local waste and sewage flowing freely into the houses of the poor”.

United Front PEC member Lungile Mxube said there could be no possible grounds for appeal.

“The municipality has collapsed.

“This appeal is a ploy by the ANC to buy time for another 18 months till the 2021 elections in the hope of renewing their mandate. It won’t work.”

The UPM's Pedro Tabensky questioned why the council had chosen to appeal rather than join forces with the people who wanted the municipality turned around.

“Why not use it as an opportunity to shake things up and turn Makana into a beacon of hope and an example of how to govern? It is just sad,” Tabensky said.