Vote-rigging allegations in South Africa’s capital goes to court

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has announced it will approach the high court to overturn the suspension of Tshwane’s municipal manager following accusations of vote rigging.

The decision comes after Tshwane’s municipal manager, Johann Mettler, was suspended on 9 July 2026 for potential misconduct.

The suspension was prompted by a disciplinary report, requested by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

The EFF alleged that Mettler had acted improperly in firing 43 municipal employees who were involved in illegal strikes.

This report received support from ActionSA and the African National Congress (ANC), which form Tshwane’s majority coalition.

At the time, opposition parties opposed the request for a disciplinary report, believing that it was an attempt to replace Mettler with somebody sympathetic to the majority coalition.

They also believed that the efforts to remove Mettler stemmed from his opening legal cases against ANC members potentially involved in irregular tenders.

On 9 July 2026, Tshwane’s council voted on whether to suspend Mettler, pending an investigation into potential misconduct.

According to the DA, the council initially voted against suspending the municipal manager, but the speaker deducted 13 votes.

The council initially voted 92 votes in favour of the suspension and 95 votes against, before the speaker’s deductions.

These votes were all against Mettler’s suspension and were deducted from several parties, including the DA.

After the votes were deducted, the motion to suspend Mettler passed with 92 votes for and 82 votes against.

After the vote, DA councillor Cilliers Brink said the speaker’s decision was an illegal obstruction of the voting process.

“It is outrageous that democratically elected public representatives were denied their constitutional right for their votes to count,” he said.

The DA recorded its objections to the voting process during the meeting and said it would be pursuing legal recourse.

The DA goes to the High Court

The DA have now approached the High Court to overturn the results of the vote for Mettler’s suspension

The party have requested that the original results of the vote, before the Speaker’s deductions, be implemented.

Alternatively, it requested a new meeting where councillors could vote again on the suspension.

Mettler’s suspension would last for three months, with acting municipal manager Musa Kumalo serving in the interim.

The DA has been sceptical about this appointment, saying it would monitor any irregularities in his conduct.

The party was concerned that Kumalo might attempt to overturn Mettler’s decisions regarding denied tender applications.

“Any unlawful or irregular decision will be challenged and, where necessary, set aside,” Brink said.

“Mettler stood in the way of irregular decisions. His removal cannot be allowed to pave the way for political interference in the administration or the looting of public funds.”

The DA responded to questions about Mettler’s suspension, saying its current priority is to overturn the results of the vote at the 9 July council meeting.

It maintained that the Speaker’s decision to overturn the vote results was both unlawful and irrational.

The Speaker deducted votes from certain councillors based on a ruling of their voting entitlements.

A councillor’s voting entitlements can only be removed under specific circumstances, such as suspensions or conflicts of interest.

If there is a conflict of interest, councillors are required to recuse themselves before voting, but no conflicts were reported by either the DA or the Tshwane municipality.

The DA said the Speaker’s ruling on voting entitlements did not have any merit and should be considered unlawful by the High Court.

“The DA rejects both the legal and factual basis for that ruling and maintains that the deduction of 13 votes was unlawful,” it said.