KIMBERLEY – The Northern Cape provincial government has launched an urgent high court bid to declare a recent controversial Sol Plaatje municipal special council meeting in Kimberley “unlawful and invalid,” warning that the city is on the “verge of collapse and instability” due to a breakdown in the rule of law.

In his founding affidavit, Bentley Vass, the MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs (Coghsta), has asked the court to set aside all resolutions taken during a special council meeting held on 17 April.

At the heart of the legal battle is the purported approval of the municipality’s draft budget for the 2026-’27 financial year, a process the MEC claims was tainted by “sheer lawlessness”.

According to court papers, the conflict stems from a meeting convened by the municipal manager, Thapelo Matlala on 17 April.

Vass contends that the municipal manager acted ultra vires, beyond his legal powers, by usurping the authority of the speaker, Dipuo Peters, to call council meetings.

The affidavit describes the meeting as “fatally defective”. Vass alleges the session failed to start at the scheduled time of 14:00, was held virtually despite a petition from a majority of councillors for an in-person meeting in the chambers, and effectively excluded members of the public from participating.

“The municipal manager’s notice… directly undermined the authority of the legitimate structures and the decorum of the council,” Vass stated in the affidavit.

“His conduct seems to be aimed at creating a shadow council to delegitimise the existence of the speaker”.

Long-standing governance crisis

The legal challenge is the latest escalation in a long-standing governance crisis in Kimberley. The MEC revealed that he had already issued a mandatory directive to the municipality on 12 March, following a “myriad of issues” that defined a state of failure in fulfilling executive obligations. These issues included the municipality’s repeated failure to resolve the status of the Municipal Manager and interruptions to service delivery.

The provincial government had initially afforded the municipality until the end of March to resolve the draft budget. This deadline was later extended by the provincial Ministry of Finance to 22 April, and subsequently to 24 April, following requests from Executive Mayor Martha Bartlett.

However, the MEC claims that instead of following these lawful extensions, a “purported” meeting was orchestrated on 17 April under “false pretense”. Vass argues that because the meeting itself was illegal, the budget approved during that session is null and void.

“A draft budget cannot be approved in an unlawful meeting,” the affidavit reads.

“The purported approval set in motion the budget process to commence; however, a budget is required to be approved by a properly constituted council and lawful and legitimate meetings.”

The affidavit confirms that the provincial executive has already resolved to intervene in Sol Plaatje under Section 139(1)(b) of the Constitution. This intervention allows the province to assume responsibility for certain executive obligations, including governance and financial administration.

Under this resolution, the MEC is authorised to appoint a Provincial Executive Representative (PER) and a team of technical experts to implement a Municipal Financial Recovery Plan. The objective, according to court documents, is to restore “lawful governance, accountability, and effective service delivery” for the benefit of the Kimberley community.

The MEC explained that the timing of this application was influenced by separate litigation initiated by the Institute of African Royalty. Coghsta had initially waited for the outcome of those proceedings to avoid a duplication of costs, but the withdrawal of that application on 5 May prompted the department to move with “necessary haste”.

Matter of extreme urgency

Vass has urged the court to treat the matter as one of extreme urgency to “avert a calamity”. He argues that the ongoing lawlessness diminishes the municipality’s capacity to provide basic services to communities that “desperately depend” on them.

The applicant is seeking a declaratory order that the 178 April meeting was unlawful and that a new Special Council meeting must be convened within five days of a court order to properly resolve the budget and governance issues.

The Sol Plaatje Local Municipality, the speaker, and the executive mayor have been cited as respondents in the matter. While the municipality has previously indicated an intention to oppose the provincial intervention, the MEC noted that the council minutes submitted do not contain a formal resolution to defend against the Section 139 intervention.