KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) Office of the Premier (OTP), under Nomusa Dube-Ncube, has requested an urgent application for a stay of execution following a CMMA Enforcement of Award which includes the seizure of more than R9million in assets.
The writ of execution (view here) – signed on 17 October – relates to an ongoing matter concerning the ANC Political Deployment Committee and its failure to renew a former provincial government Head of Department’s employment contract.
The OTP’s urgent application comes after the Sheriff of the Court went to its offices on 6 November to attach vehicles and equipment to the value of R9 449 977 48.
The matter only featured on the Premier’s radar after the DA raised the enforcement award during a recent Legislature Sitting. Her subsequent knee-jerk reaction – in the form of an urgent application – is clear evidence that she had not bothered to take the matter seriously before.
Despite the matter having been in dispute since 2017 and through various legal institutions, the CCMA and Labour Courts – Premier Dube-Ncube has now also chosen to ignore the Award instruction and to continue to defend the matter.
It is clear that the Premier has no regard for the fact that this trial would already have incurred massive legal fees – costs borne by the people of KZN. Instead, she is hell-bent on hurling more money at what is a clearly a hopeless cause.
The Premier’s actions indicate an increasingly desperate ANC. They also smack of an ANC that cannot accept when it has done wrong.
The DA has been provided with numerous documents detailing the case. Most alarming are the CCMA transcripts of a hearing with former KZN Premier Willies Mchunu, in which he stumbles through an inquiry on the roles and functions of the ANC Deployment Committee.
The transcripts show that when it comes to the ANC, it’s all about cadre deployment rather than fitness for purpose. This vindicates the DA’s ongoing claims that for as long as KZN is run by ANC cadres, it will never achieve a capable and ethical state. The collapse of services – at both provincial and local government level – is testimony to this.
The DA has submitted a written parliamentary question (view here) to the OTP to determine legal costs to date. We will insist on an answer. We will also approach the Office of the Public Protector to investigate this matter.
Taxpayers’ money can no longer be used to clean up the mess created by KZN’s Taliban faction ANC government.
While the Premier tries to defend the indefensible, DA KZN Premier candidate, Chris Pappas, is on the ground, showing true leadership and bringing hope to the people of our province. When they go to the polls in 2024, they will have the opportunity to rescue KZN.