Victory for community as court confirms that Matika must go

31 July 2018

Today, the Northern Cape High Court upheld the interests of the community and listened to the urgent pleas from residents that Mangaliso Matika must step down as the Executive Mayor of the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality.

The DA filed for an urgent interdict to uphold the outcome of the special council meeting held last week, where a majority of councillors present passed a motion of no confidence in Matika.

Judge Williams today confirmed that Matika must vacate his offices as mayor, pending the finalisation of the matter on 22 August 2018.

We are very happy that the courts have confirmed what the community has been telling Matika and his cronies in the ANC for a long time - that it is time for him to return the Audi bought with the people’s money, to bring back the keys to the mayoral office and to hand over the mayoral chain so that the process of rebuilding the municipality can begin.

It is truly tragic that the situation has deteriorated this far and that protests in Kimberley have kept children from school, residents from receiving much-needed government services and businesses from being able to operate. Aside from the massive loss of income that businesses have suffered, the vandalism and damage to infrastructure is a blow that the city will struggle to recover from.

Today’s judgement is a first step in the recovery process. The victory of today is the efforts of a collective of political parties within council which put the needs of the people first and adhered to their call to remove Matika. We are immensely grateful for the support we have received from councillors in different political parties, as this matter is truly about the needs of the community.

It is also a confirmation that residents do not have to subject themselves to poor service delivery, an abuse of power by elected officials or maladministration of public funds. The efforts led by the DA and councillors in Sol Plaatje shows that change is within reach for residents with the 2019 election.

Issued by Andrew Louw, DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader, 31 July 2018