DURBAN - The IFP has threatened to take the KwaZulu-Natal government to court if it continues with plans to build the new legislature.
During the media briefing held at the IFP’s Durban offices on Tuesday, party president Velenkosini Hlabisa said his party would consider a court challenge to stop what he termed a waste of taxpayers’ money, since there was the old legislature building in Ulundi which could be used.
He said a court challenge would be the last resort because his party knew the project would not even start since the government has no money to do so, adding that the national government would not allow it, as former finance minister Trevor Manuel had issued an instruction to provincial governments to use former homeland legislature buildings which were inherited by the government after 1994.
The IFP said there was not even a legislature resolution to build the new legislature.
Hlabisa said his party would formally raise the matter in the legislature and ask for the resolution of the house.
“We would consider taking the matter to court, but at the same time, we have said in the past that it is a doomed project before it could start. Before borrowing money, the province must, in terms of the PFMA (Public Finance Management Act), convince the national government how necessary it is to borrow the money. We know the government stopped the province from building new legislatures, and there were old chambers which were used by the former homelands government,” said Hlabisa.
He added that in February 2020, the KZN Department of Public Works made a presentation to the Public Works Portfolio Committee for the development of a KZN government precinct in Pietermaritzburg.
Hlabisa said the IFP felt that it was time to put matters into perspective for the people of KwaZulu-Natal because of its continued recurrence in the State of the Provincial Address. He said the presentation proposed that the development was going to take place in three phases or parts, with phase 1 running from 2020 to 2023, which was going to deal with the site development, legislature and archives.
Daily News