Court date for interdict against Minister regarding Cubans

19 May 2021

Solidarity will be in court on 01 Junie to obtain an interdict against the plans of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu to import and deploy Cuban engineers. Solidarity brought an urgent application to the North Gauteng High Court to stop these actions by the Minister and her department.

“We have already met with the Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation. They requested the opportunity to submit to us an alternative proposal, for which we set a deadline, and we have also extended this deadline twice. To date, however, no alternative proposal has been received. The matter is urgent and Solidarity cannot allow it to drag on any longer. Our legal team went ahead with urgent legal steps to stop the Minister’s plans,” said Solidarity Chief Executive Dr Dirk Hermann.

In its application Solidarity asks for an interdict that will, among other things, prevent any work being done on South Africa’s water infrastructure by Cuban engineers, and the application also asks that no payments related to this agreement be made.

“Importing engineers is outrageous when the knowledge, competence and accreditation of willing engineers are available on home soil. These Cuban engineers are not accredited in South Africa. Our tax money can much rather be used to employ our own engineers and workers. We cannot look on while the Minister squanders resources through her irrational decisions. Our priority is to promote the interests of South African workers,” Hermann concluded.

Issued by Morné Malan, Head: Communication, 19 May 2021