The City of Cape Town has launched a high court challenge to the legality of the Erasmus commission, city speaker Dirk Smit announced on Tuesday.
The commission was set up by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool last year to probe the city’s own investigation of renegade councillor Badih Chaaban.
It has since been given a makeover, and Rasool has added a probe of Chaaban himself, and of the Democratic Alliance-controlled George town council, to its brief.
Smit said the city’s papers filed on Tuesday in the Cape High Court challenge the legality of the commission both before and after the makeover.
”In his enthusiasm to smear the multiparty government of Cape Town, Rasool has tried to take on powers he does not have,” he said in a statement. ”He has stepped over the line, and is trying to abuse and distort the province’s very limited powers of intervention in local government for party political purposes.”
Rasool’s African National Congress controls the province, while the city is run by a multiparty government led by the Democratic Alliance.
Smit said the city is arguing that by acting outside the Municipal Systems Act, Rasool is trying to dodge legal constraints on what the province can and cannot do when intervening in local government. ”This is an unlawful abuse of his office,” he said.
He said if Rasool suspects that corruption or any other criminal offence has been committed, he should report the matter to the police and leave them to investigate it.
In addition, the commission cannot result in any administrative action by province, which is a requirement of law.
”This is not the first time that the province has tried to unlawfully undermine the city,” Smit said. — Sapa