THE City of Johannesburg’s top brass, including mayor Dada Morero, could be forced to forfeit being driven around the municipality in luxury vehicles by an army of members of the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD).
This is after the City of Joburg missed the Valentine’s Day deadline set by the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, Judge Stuart Wilson suspending his January 2 order setting aside the March 2024 council resolution, to adopt and approve the Protection and Security for VIP Risk Management System Policy and declaring it unconstitutional and invalid.
Judge Wilson then suspended the orders until Friday and gave any interested person to apply to extend the suspension period before its expiry and produce facts showing that doing otherwise would result in imminent harm.
The policy, which was legally challenged by the DA, made provision for 15 public office bearers including Morero to be allocated 10 bodyguards who are part of the JMPD and six vehicles, BMW 3 Series, a BMW X5, a Toyota RAV4, a VW Polo, a Toyota Hilux, and a Lexus, while speaker Nobuhle Mthembu had an allocation of eight bodyguards and a BMW 3 Series, a BMW X3, a Toyota RAV4, a VW Polo, and a Toyota Corolla.
Other public office bearers had between two and five bodyguards and at least two vehicles as part of the unconstitutional and invalid policy.
On Friday, Judge Wilson dismissed the City of Joburg’s application to extend the deadline to April 30.
DA Johannesburg caucus leader, Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku, said the party’s shadow public safety MMC Solomon Maila has already written to Morero reminding him that should the city not have all cars parked by noon, they would be in contempt of the court judgment.
”We are monitoring the situation,” Kayser-Echeozonjoku said.
Newly-appointed JMPD chief Patrick Jaca had told the high court on Thursday that the municipality will require until 30 April to remedy its non-compliance with the requirements set by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa for the provision of councillors’ personal protection services in accordance with the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers Act.
According to the judge, none of the respondents (Joburg public office bearers) had placed any information before him about the extent to which his January 2 order might place the affected 15 councillors in danger.
Judge Wilson said he found Jaca’s affidavit, in which he indicated that he has sent letters to Gauteng provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Tommy Mthombeni, sorely lacking.
Jaca, who became the JMPD’s permanent boss on February 1, asked Mthombeni to carry out assessments of whether the “inherent risks” associated with the work of various senior municipal councillors might justify enhanced personal protection.
”That is obviously not the same as saying that imminent harm will ensue unless my order of January 2, 2025, is further suspended,” Judge Wilson found.
Jaca informed the high court that two senior municipal councillors – chief whip Nkosephayo Zungu and public safety MMC Dr Mgcini Tshwaku – have at some unspecified point in the past received anonymous threats.
The JMPD chief also stated that finance MMC Margaret Arnolds thought that she had been followed home on her way from work one evening.
But Judge Wilson said there was no suggestion that any of these councillors will come to any harm if his order is brought into effect and that none of them deposed an affidavit setting out the harm they think might ensue if the suspension expired on Friday.
The judge said in Zungu’s case, there was no attempt to say why the two bodyguards to which he is already entitled were insufficient to address any concerns he may have.
Zungu was shot and injured in January last year in Zakariyya Park, south of Joburg, in an incident that left Rand Water executive Teboho Joala and his bodyguard Sifiso Shange dead.
Morero’s spokesperson, Chris Vondo, did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday.