By Sihle Mavuso
The councillor of the National Freedom Party (NFP) who was removed in May to make way for the party’s president to be a councillor in the Zululand district municipality is not taking the matter lying down.
Sibusiso Nkosi has filed an application with the Pietermaritzburg High Court to have his removal set aside.
He also wants the court to remove NFP president Ivan Barnes as a proportional representative councillor in the Zululand district municipality and reinstate him to the position.
Among those Nkosi has cited in the papers is the former MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Bongi Sithole-Moloi, the Zululand district municipality, and the Electoral Commission of South Africa.
He claims that his removal, effective on 14 May, was unlawful and should be immediately set aside. The matter will be heard on 2 October.
Nkosi argues that the decision by Sithole-Moloi to ratify his removal was “knee jerk” and should be set aside.
He also wants the court to set aside his expulsion from the NFP which was communicated by Barnes on 26 March. He claims his expulsion was based on an allegation that he had joined another party, yet the party was never named.
“I deny that I have defected to any party at all,” Nkosi says in the court papers. “In fact, I submit that no resolution of the NEC to terminate my membership of the NFP was ever taken at a meeting on 26 March 2024. This is simply a unilateral decision by the sixth respondent [Barnes] and it is unlawful.”
Pictured above: NFP president Ivan Barnes.
Source: X
