ANC baffled at Mashaba’s move to attach Luthuli House property
The African National Congress (ANC) in Gauteng has described it as unfortunate, plans by Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba to attach property at the governing party’s Luthuli House headquarters.
Mashaba claims the ANC owes the city R300 000 in legal fees and if the party does not pay its bill before June 15 the city will move to attach property to reclaim the money.
The dispute comes after the High Court in Johannesburg granted a cost order against the ANC after a failed attempt to institute a motion of no confidence in Mashaba.
It is this cost order, which Mashaba says is R300 000, that has remained unpaid.
While the ANC does not dispute the fact that it owes money it believes the City of Joburg is not honouring an agreement between the respective legal teams.
Part of the agreement states that the deadline to determine the costs is only next week.
“We have no problem of paying the legal costs but there is a process to follow and the process is that the lawyers of the city, being those of the mayor and the speaker have communicated with our legal team in terms of how they proceed going forward,” says the ANC’s Jolidee Matongo.
Mashaba wants to party to pay the legal bill by Friday.
“The ANC’s baseless accusations were exposed as nothing more than a smokescreen to regain control of the city by any means possible,” believes director of legal advisory, Tony Taverna-Turisan.