Axed councillors give ANC a stern warning
|Published
An ANC supporter holds a flag of the ANC while the President Jacob Zuma addresses ANC Gauteng Cadre Assembly in Pretoria. Picture: Phill Magakoe An ANC supporter holds a flag of the ANC while the President Jacob Zuma addresses ANC Gauteng Cadre Assembly in Pretoria. Picture: Phill Magakoe
Johannesburg - Some of the expelled Tlokwe ANC councillors will meet their constituents this week in a bid to gain their support in a move that could see them challenging their former party in the upcoming by-elections.
This comes while the stand-off between the ANC and DA over the mayoral seat of the troubled Tlokwe local municipality in North West rages on, with rising political tension fuelled by a fierce contest over nine ward councillor seats left vacant when the ANC expelled its councillors last week.
The expelled councillors were hoping for their communities’ support, which could see them back in the Tlokwe council chambers as independent candidates in the by-elections.
If they make it back to council, the councillors said they would “take over from where they left off” with their duties, adding that their expulsion from the ANC was based on their attempt to expose corruption, rather than “ill-discipline”.
They said they had first voted for the removal of ANC mayor Maphetle Maphetle in November last year amid allegations of corruption, after their pleas to get ANC heavyweights to act fell on deaf ears.
One of the expelled councillors, Jim Bothoza, said it was never their intention to replace Maphetle with a DA mayor when they first supported his removal. He said they had nominated Lucky Tsagae for the mayoral seat, but that victory was impossible after 11 ANC councillors walked out of the council chambers, leaving them outnumbered and elevating the DA’s Professor Annette Combrink to the mayoral seat.
“The ANC said after that meeting that we did not have the mandate to nominate anyone to the mayoral seat. Our aim after reporting allegations to the ANC was to get Maphetle set aside so that all corruption allegations against him can be investigated. If cleared, he was to get back to his position,” said Bothoza.
“It is because we did not have any mandate from the ANC that we sat inactive and never voted for or against anyone in last week’s meeting, where Combrink was elected mayor. We did not vote with the DA, just like the last time, but this time around we did not nominate anyone to stand against the DA.”
Bothoza denied conspiring with the DA, but said the ANC should “ask itself why its own councillors were agreeing with the opposition when it came to allegations of corruption against Maphetle”.
Another councillor, Aaron Mohlope, said the expelled individuals wanted Maphetle out to “save the soul of the ANC, because we couldn’t just sit and let corruption continue and taint the name of the organisation”.
“This is not about the ANC, but about clean governance and I’m confident in all the affected councillors because we have the community behind us,” he said.
“The ANC must wait for a surprise because our community is aware of the truth. We were voted in by the community and they will decide where we go next and we’ll abide by their mandate”.
Meanwhile, Maphetle and Combrink were expected to lock horns when they meet in Potchefstroom this morning. The DA leader in the province, Chris Hattingh, said they were expecting Maphetle to “smoothly hand over the administration” to Combrink.
But Maphetle said he was meeting Combrink to “talk some sense into her and make her see that she was elected at an irregular meeting”, and that she cannot be recognised as mayor.
Hattingh said if Maphetle was still in the mayor’s office by the end of Monday, the DA would seek a court order to remove him. But Maphetle said he would ask the courts to rule on the legality of a meeting during which Combrink was elected.
poloko.tau@inl.co.za
The Star