The former Board of SA Tourism has expressed disappointment at the decision of the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to have its case against Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille struck off the urgent roll.
During a virtual hearing on October 15, Judge Nomsa Khumalo ruled that the applicants’ case against De Lille – centred on the legalities of the minister’s decision to dissolve the Board in August – did not meet the required criteria to be heard on an urgent basis. Seven members of the 10-person Board approached the court to have the decision overturned and the Board reinstated.
Khumalo based her order on the fact that the former Board members only applied for urgent relief on September 4. De Lille’s decision to dissolve the Board was communicated on August 20.
“The applicants should have approached the court for urgent relief immediately after the executive decision by the minister was taken and communicated,” said Khumalo.
In stating the applicants’ case for the matter to be heard on an urgent basis, Advocate Tshidiso Ramogale argued that allegations of unlawful actions by government ministers should inherently be regarded as urgent. He added that urgency is further supported by the fact that De Lille has already embarked on processes to appoint a new permanent Board.
“The appointment of a new permanent Board will make it extremely difficult for the former Board members to get their positions back should the court find in favour of them,” he said.
A call for nominations for members to serve on the new permanent Board was published by De Lille in the Government Gazette on October 10.
Next steps
“While we respect the court’s ruling, we are deeply disappointed with the outcome and firmly maintain that the minister’s decision to dissolve the SA Tourism Board was unjustified, lacked merit and constitutes an overreach of authority,” the former Board members said in a joint statement responding to the ruling.
The Board members stressed that the judgment did not address the substantive merits of the application nor the lawfulness of the dissolution.
“The Board members remain committed to challenging this decision and will continue to pursue all legal avenues to invalidate the minister’s action and address the illegality of the dissolution.”
De Lille said she is “vindicated” by the ruling.
“I have always known that I was acting within the prescripts of the law and followed the law to the letter but it was their Constitutional right to challenge my executive decision,” said De Lille.
