JOHANNESBURG - The DA is not backing down in its defence of Tshwane City Manager Johann Mettler, who is currently on suspension following allegations of misconduct.
DA Tshwane Caucus Leader and mayoral candidate Cilliers Brink claims the move against Mettler is politically motivated.
The legal battle over the leadership of the City of Tshwane is set to continue after the High Court in Pretoria postponed the DA's urgent application to Wednesday.
READ | DA claims Tshwane council manipulated vote to suspend Mettler
The party is seeking to overturn council resolutions that placed Mettler on precautionary suspension, arguing the decision was unlawful.
“The ANC, EFF and the Action SA, who is facilitating all of this through the office of the executive mayor, want to remove Mettler because he stands in the way of corruption. And we also make this clear in our court submissions,”
Brink said Mettler has previously stopped the awarding of tenders which at times he believed would have led to irregular expenditure.
He said it is for this reason that Mettler is frustrating the current coalition in Tshwane.
“If they can get Mettler out of the office for three months, which is the period of a suspension at the beginning of a financial year, we believe there is a very serious risk that these parties, ANC, EFF, and Action SA, will loot the Tshwane city coffers,” he said
Earlier this month, the Tshwane Council voted to suspend Mettler following allegations of misconduct.
READ | DA demands urgent action after four Ekurhuleni officials arrested
It is these very allegations that Brink maintains are "ill defined" and ‘baseless’.
“The DA made it clear when these allegations were brought by the EFF that the council had no business to authorise the investigation because you need some substantiating facts in order to launch an investigation of this nature, to spend public money and to investigate a top official.
“And it is on the strength of these very weak EFF allegations that Mayor Nasiphi Moya recommended that Johan Mettler be issued with an intention to suspend,” he said
Brink argued that such reasons are what is driving what it calls the downgrade of the allegations against Group Chief Financial Officer Gareth Mnisi as serious.
READ | Disciplinary action recommended against Gareth Mnisi
The DA is asking the court to set aside the council's decision to classify allegations against Mnisi as serious.
“If you're found guilty of those allegations, one of the options on the table for a disciplinary hearing is to fire you. Instead, the city has rushed to treat the allegations against Mnisi as less serious.
“What we really fear is happening here is that the ANC, EFF, and Action SA are giving Mnisi a soft landing,” he said.