The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal condemns ActionSA for their malicious disrespect of the court and attempt to lie to the residents of eThekwini over the crucial sewage court case.
In the interests of transparency, the DA has compiled a full timeline of events to be found here, something ActionSA will not provide.
It is a matter of record that the DA is the only party that has steadfastly driven this case, adhering to all rules of the court and best practices to ensure the highest possibly of success, while ActionSA has spent this entire time attacking the DA while never caring about the city’s residents.
If ActionSA were “first” to launch their court case, why has it never been heard? Because they were never able to provide the court with the sufficient information to get the case going.
The DA was READY to lead our rock-solid court case on 03 and 04 October 2024 which ActionSA were going to follow when the eThekwini Municipality suddenly deposed 2500 pages of affidavits less than 30 days before the case was set to be heard. This was akin to torpedoing the battleship leaving the DA and the court no time to wade through the affidavit they dumped on the court. While ActionSA insisted on having the case heard in the interests of scoring cheap political points, the DA was insistent that time must be given to adequately respond to the city’s affidavit. Anything less than this was reckless, irresponsible and an act of sabotage by ActionSA.
While ActionSA is happy to saddle themselves with substandard lawyers who are themselves failed politicians, the DA prides itself on fielding the best of the best, who we pay for ourselves. We also call on the public not to be persuaded to fund ActionSA’s court case as the DA is fully funding our case. We cannot be sure where the money they ask for is going.
Our legal team, who are highly trained professionals, have a case in the Constitutional Court which clashed with the date set by the court after ASA attempted to bomb our case in October 2024.
All of this could have been avoided if they chose to put the residents first. Further to this, it is highly disrespectful to the Constitutional Court and is common practice that when a higher court allocates a matter, that the lower court abides. Respect is something however ActionSA has no knowledge of.
Therefore, the most responsible thing is to ensure that our competent, winning, and ethical team is available to fight for the residents and restore human dignity to the residents of eThekwini. They do not have time for the cheap, petty, and childish politics of ActionSA.
Just yesterday, ActionSA again attempted to delay a case management meeting when their lawyer tried to attend another appointment which only would have further delayed the case. The DA rejected this.
None of this is a surprise, which is why the voters of KZN rejected ActionSA to the point that their support collapsed by 75% to a mere 0.27% in 2024 in the province, and who were beaten by a Facebook comedian which left them with a total of zero seats in the legislature.