The Sedibeng District Municipality has been ordered to reinstate its municipal manager, Motsumi Mathe, after he was placed on precautionary suspension last month for allegedly failing to timeously discipline Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Mathapelo Masisi.
Mathe approached the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, on an urgent basis in a bid to set aside his suspension on the basis that he was given no opportunity to be heard before the decision was taken.
He also argued that his failure to respond to those unidentified reasons was material to the decision to suspend him and that the failure to specifically identify those reasons rendered his right to be heard nugatory (no legal force) and accordingly that this failure vitiated (spoiled) the suspension itself.
According to correspondence between Mayor Lerato Maloka and Mathe, the municipal manager was suspended for opposing the urgent application filed by Masisi challenging her suspension and her actual suspension, which Maloka described as unlawful.
Maloka also accused Mathe of disregarding a council resolution not to oppose Masisi’s urgent application to set aside her suspension, resulting in the municipality suffering financial prejudice amounting to fruitless expenditure caused by initiating disciplinary proceedings despite being aware that the prospects of success were not feasible.
Additionally, Mathe was accused of failing to charge Masisi within the required 90 days, which, if not adhered to, leads to the suspension lapsing.
“Your actions have resulted in the municipal council suffering harm, in that the municipality had to incur expenditure fruitless of three months’ salary paid to the CFO for no work tendered, failure to initiate disciplinary proceedings within 90 days, resulting in the automatic lapse of the CFO’s suspension, whose continued suspension past 90 days would have been unlawful,” Maloka informed Mathe.
She told him that his actions from the outset were malicious and ill-intended and that this was demonstrated by his failure to act in the municipality’s best interests.
In his response, Mathe said Masisi’s suspension was not personal but the implementation of a resolution of the majority of the municipality’s 49 councillors to suspend and ultimately charge her.
“All regulatory prescripts were followed within the law in the CFO’s case, from the allegations by Charles Steyn (director: financial management and budgeting), who is the CFO’s subordinate, to serving the CFO with charges. This includes handling the investigation processes, tabling its results in council, and processing council resolutions of February 19, 2026,” he explained.
On Thursday, Judge Stuart Wilson found that Sedibeng’s subsequent resolution was taken in breach of the statutorily prescribed conditions expressly placed on the exercise of its power to suspend Mathe and accordingly in breach of the principle of legality enshrined in the Constitution.
The judge declared the May 12 council resolution placing Mathe on precautionary suspension constitutionally invalid and set it aside.
“The first, second, and fourth respondents (the municipality, Maloka, and the acting municipal manager) are ordered forthwith to allow the applicant (Mathe) to resume his duties as municipal manager and to comply with the Local Government: Disciplinary Regulations for Senior Managers 2011 made under Section 120 of the Municipal Systems Act when taking any steps against the applicant,” Judge Wilson ruled.
He added that the order does not preclude the Sedibeng District Municipality from identifying any facts on which it considers that the requirements set out in the regulations have been met, from hearing Mathe in relation to those facts, and from suspending him once it has seriously considered his representations.
“The purpose of my order is not to prejudge Mathe’s case, but to ensure that it is dealt with according to law,” Judge Wilson added.
The DA said the judgment was a damning indictment of the manner in which the ANC-led coalition continues to abuse public institutions for factional and political purposes, with complete disregard for the rule of law, good governance, and residents’ constitutional rights.
It called for all councillors who participated in and voted for Mathe’s unconstitutional suspension, particularly Maloka, to be held personally liable for the legal costs arising from the matter. Public representatives must be charged, it added.
“The DA will not allow public funds meant for service delivery to be plundered to pay for the ANC’s legal blunders … They cannot continue to make reckless, unlawful decisions and then hide behind the municipal purse when those decisions are struck down by the courts,” the party said.
Attempts to contact Maloka were unsuccessful on Saturday.
Loyiso Sidimba
iol.co.za
