Reasons given by Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi for Matatiele’s incorporation into the Eastern Cape from KwaZulu-Natal were wrong, the Constitutional Court heard on Thursday.
”The minister’s facts are wrong geographically, ethnically, culturally … And his wrong facts are compounded by the fact that nobody has spoken to these people,” said lawyer Alastair Dickson.
Dickson was representing 10 applicants, including the Matatiele-Maluti Mass Action Organising Committee, who have applied to the court to strike down parts of a law which saw their incorporation into the Eastern Cape.
They say a section of the law, which requires that provincial legislatures facilitate public involvement, was not fulfilled in the run up to the passing of the Constitution’s Twelfth Amendment Bill.
The Bill was passed to remove cross-border municipalities.
The applicants believe public involvement includes public hearings at a legislative level which did not take place in KwaZulu-Natal.
The legislature also did not extend an invitation for public hearings.
Lawyers representing the president, government departments, the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal legislatures, and Parliament, disagreed with the interpretation of the section, saying it did not amount to public hearings.
The community had been able to make written submissions, 19 000 of them signed a petition and there were hearings in the area before the Bill was debated in the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces.
Dickson said the residents believed they had been dumped in the Eastern Cape for the wrong reasons.
These included that they were closer to the Xhosas in the Eastern Cape than the Zulus in KwaZulu-Natal.
He said the community in fact associated itself with the amaHlubi whose kingdom was in Estcourt in KwaZulu-Natal.
Ishmael Semenya for the president and departments of provincial and local government, and justice and constitutional development, said if the court found there was public participation, he would be surprised that the law be struck down based on the fact that the legislature had not extended the invitation.
Norman Arendse, for the two legislatures, said public participation should be looked at from where the Bill originated, and that was from the National Assembly.
He said there had been ample participation at a national level.
The Independent Electoral Commission told the court if it was necessary for the local government elections to be held again in the area if Matatiele moved back to KwaZulu-Natal, it would need three months for preparations.
Hundreds of people drove through the night from Matatiele to Johannesburg to observe Thursday’s court proceedings.
They told the South African Press Association they wanted to be incorporated back into KwaZulu-Natal because they had not been consulted on the demarcation of the area, and that KwaZulu-Natal offered better services than the Eastern Cape.
The court reserved judgement. – Sapa