Court documents: Decision on Cuban engineers illegal
6 July 2021
Solidarity issued its court documents in its case against the Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation. In the court documents, Solidarity challenges the legality of the decision to import Cuban engineers.
According to Solidarity, Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and her department do not comply with the legal requirements of section 217 of the Constitution, which determines that state institutions must be managed cost-effectively. Solidarity calls for the decision to appoint Cuban engineers to be set aside, and argues that the correct procedure in appointing such engineers was not followed by the department and that there was no transparency in the process.
“What Minister Sisulu and her department are doing, is unconstitutional. She deliberately misleads the public, deceitfully conspires and sidesteps processes that must be followed. With these actions she undermines the law and she fails to comply with the requirements set for her. We remind the minister that she has an obligation towards South Africa and that she must fulfil her responsibilities. However, she does not want to comply, which leaves us with no alternative but to go to court,” said Anton van der Bijl, head of Legal Matters at Solidarity.
Furthermore, Solidarity argues that the decision to import Cuban engineers is unethical because the designated engineers will see only a small portion of the money while most of the money will be paid over to the Cuban government. According to Solidarity, these Cuban workers are being exploited so that the government can repay “old political debt” that had been incurred mainly by the ANC.