Judgement reserved in Kanye Admin Authority case

Tumelo Mouwane | Friday June 9, 2017 16:21

 

Otlaadisa of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), who was elected the deputy chairperson, approached the Court as a matter of urgency after the Council Secretary nullified the results and called for a re-run. Otlaadisa dragged the Southern District Council (SDC), its chairperson and vice chairperson together with the Council Secretary to court through his attorney Reuben Lekorwe, in a bid to secure an interim interdict of a re-run of the elections.

Otlaadisa argued before the Court that the SDC’s council secretary had no powers to nullify the elections, which resulted in his victory of the deputy chairpersonship back in May 22.  The urgent application was heard on the evening of May 29, a day before the scheduled day of a re-run and court ruled in favour of the applicant to have the re-run halted. In lengthy arguments before Justice Tafa, Otlaadisa’s lawyer argued that the council secretary had no power’s to take such decision. 

“The applicant is of the view that he has a right in terms of the local governments act to be elected as the deputy chairperson in the Kanye Administration Authority. The election was in accordance with the council’s standing orders and he has the right to protect his position. “We are of the view that the advice given to the council that the two ex-officio members were not eligible to vote was right in the first instance,” Lekorwe said.

He said the injury that his client will mainly suffer is that the council wants a re-run of the elections, arguing that the only remedy to the contest was only an interim interdict that will totally stay the process until a review application is made.  “If the elections continue to be held, he will be confused whether to stand or not because if he stands it will be interpreted as if he has conceded and accepted the outcome.

Some of the prejudices that he suffers is that re-run of the elections do not guarantee that he will get his position back. Genuine elections should not just be nullified because the applicant will have a chance to stand again,” Lekorwe said.  In response, Kole Kole for the respondents said the applicants only made averments and allegations that are not even justified.

“Our position is that the application is not up to the required standards. They are just trying to put something on nothing. The right that the applicant says was infringed is not clearly outlined in his papers but we should not struggle to find that out. We are of the view that this application is baseless and must not succeed,” he said.

In the elections Thapelo Pelekekae of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) won the chairperson seat by 12 votes against Tlhomamo Dibeela’s 10 votes. Otlaadisa won the deputy seat by 12 votes.  The case will be back in Court for judgement on June 15.