The ANC in Johannesburg has met with the city’s lawyers to reach an amicable solution after mayor Herman Mashaba announced that property worth R300,000 would be seized from Luthuli House if the governing party did not pay what it owed the city.
Mashaba on Monday said a writ of execution against the ANC had been obtained after it failed to pay R300,000 in legal fees owed to the city.
This was after the ANC‚ in September 2017‚ brought an urgent application in the High Court in Johannesburg in a bid to have a motion of no confidence tabled against Mashaba and Speaker Vasco da Gama conducted through a secret ballot.
The matter was struck off the roll for lack of urgency and awarded costs to the city.
Mashaba said should the ANC fail to honour the payment by this Friday‚ the city would instruct its lawyers to proceed with the execution of the court order‚ which would result in property being seized from the party’s national headquarters in Johannesburg by the sheriff of the high court.
The ANC caucus in Johannesburg on Thursday said it learnt that the city would be attaching assets for the first time when Mashaba issued his media statement.
Spokesman Jolidee Matongo said the ANC only recently learnt that it was required to provide Johannesburg’s lawyers with a settlement proposal on or before June 15. This was communicated to the ANC by the city this past Tuesday‚ which led to a meeting with Johannesburg’s lawyers.
“If it were not for arrangements made by the lawyers in this matter we would have settled the taxed bill of costs as soon as we were advised by our lawyer to do so‚” Matongo said.
- BusinessLIVE
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