Trade union Solidarity backtracked at the last minute on its legal challenge in which it accused the Joburg metro of gross abuse of state power after its banner seeking to brand SA as the “most race-regulated country” was removed.
Solidarity, ahead of the country hosting Africa’s first-yet G20 summit, had erected a large billboard with the words “Welcome to the most race-regulated country in the world” near the Joburg city centre.
The municipality removed the banner last week, saying the union did not seek the metro’s prior approval for the display and contravened municipal outdoor advertising bylaws.
The union in its court papers before the Johannesburg high court described the banner as its “sensitive G20 public-interest advocacy campaign” for what it “perceives to be SA’s extensive roster of race-based policy regulation”.
Several ANC policies aimed at transformation are being challenged in courts by the private sector, including Solidarity. The government’s new employment equity regulations pinned on the Employment Equity Amendment Act (EEAA) have faced pushback from Solidarity and the DA.
The opposed application was set to be heard by judge Fiona Dippenaar on Tuesday, but advocate Reinard Michau, representing Solidarity, informed the court of the removal of the application after the parties reached an agreement.
The only condition in the agreement was that Solidarity would remove the application from the roll and collect its banner “by close of business” on Tuesday.
During the hearing it was apparent the municipality and Solidarity did not entirely agree on the finer details of what would happen after collection.
Advocate Khotso Ramolefe, representing the metro, said, “The respondents [municipality and JMPD] do not expect or anticipate that the applicant would proceed to try and put the banner up in the absence of approval from the municipality.”
Michau, however, did not confirm this.
Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann launched the urgent application last week and wanted the court to declare the removal of the banner unlawful. The union also wanted the court to order the metro to put the banner back on display.
The trade union blamed Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi for the removal of the banner.
Lesufi had criticised Solidarity for the banner, accusing it of abusing freedom of speech rights.
The union started the banner campaign two months after the Pretoria high court dismissed an urgent application by the National Employers’ Association of SA (Neasa), which wanted to suspend the government’s new employment equity regulations.
Neasa, which represents about 7,000 employers in different sectors, and business lobby group Sakeliga initiated the legal challenge in July, seeking an interim order to suspend the employment equity regulations pending a review application.
The regulations were published in April after the Employment Equity Amendment Act came into effect in January.
Solidarity also opposed the implementation of the regulations and applied to the high court to be allowed to deliver evidence in the Neasa application.
Judge Graham Moshoana refused Solidarity’s application to be admitted as a friend of the court in Neasa and Sakeliga’s urgent application.
The state argued those against the regulations wanted to “entrench inequalities of the past for years to come”.
Court cases challenging the ANC’s transformation policies include pushback against the Expropriation Act, which addresses whether privately owned land can be seized for public good without compensation; the broad-based BEE legal sector code implemented to ensure black practitioners have strengthened ownership of the country’s law firms; and the National Health Insurance (NHI), which are still pending before the courts.
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