adminThandeka Moyo Court Reporter
HWANGE residents yesterday approached the High Court seeking an urgent order to stop the local authority from effecting the 2015 council budget which will see an increase in tariffs, arguing that further consultations on the matter must first be carried out.In an urgent court application, the chairperson of the Hwange Residents Association, Lucky Daka, argued that the budget was imposed by the board secretariat after flawed ward budget consultations.
He said residents have a right to administrative justice in terms of section 68 of the Constitution as well as the right to good governance in terms of section 9 of the same Constitution.
“This is an urgent chamber application to halt the responsible authorities from proceeding to approve and implement 2015 budget without extensive consultation from the Hwange residents,” said Daka in the court application.
The Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Housing Ignatius Chombo, Matabeleland North provincial administrator Latiso Dhlamini and Hwange local board chairman Cosmas Ndlovu were cited as first , second and third respondents.
In a letter sent to the local authority, Daka said the local board had to review its consultation process to ensure that it complied with the Local Authourities 2015 Tarriff Approval Checklist as well as the Local Authorities Circular Minutes No 2 of 2014 or risk being taken to court.
“On or about November 17, the Hwange Local Board rolled out, deliberately or out of sheer ignorance a sham programme intended to consult Hwange residents for the 2015 fiscal year. The said budget consultation programme substantially fell short of both the expectations and the legal requirements of such a process,” said Daka.
He also said the residents voiced their concerns to councillors and nothing was done.
“We requested that the mickey-mouse consultations be stopped immediately. However our calls were ignored right to this moment and thus we resorted to approaching the national courts for assistance,” he said.
He said the urgent chamber application was aimed at stopping the responsible authorities from implementing the budget without extensive consultation. “I seek an order interdicting the respondents from approving and implementing the budget without extensive consultations which remains paramount to both budget formulation and implementation,” said Daka.
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