374 Maphetle Maphetle( middle) the new mayor of Tlokwe Manucipality in Potchefstroom . He was voted back into office after a motion of no confidence was passed on the DA mayor and sghe was ultimately voted out. 260213 Picture: Boxer Ngwenya 374 Maphetle Maphetle( middle) the new mayor of Tlokwe Manucipality in Potchefstroom . He was voted back into office after a motion of no confidence was passed on the DA mayor and sghe was ultimately voted out. 260213 Picture: Boxer Ngwenya
North West -
A seething ANC on Tuesday night threatened to discipline its defiant councillors in the Tlokwe municipality, accusing them of going out of their way to embarrass the party.
This came after councillors once more voted out as Tlokwe mayor ANC Maphetle Maphetle and replaced him with the DA’s Professor Annette Combrink.
The embarrassing decision came four months after President Jacob Zuma and other senior ANC leaders ordered the councillors to reinstate Maphetle, after they had voted with opposition parties in November to remove him.
ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said: “The ANC is deeply angered by its councillors involved in this matter for their appalling and unacceptable behaviour, which is clearly an act of defiance and a calculated effort to bring shame and embarrassment to the organisation.
“This desperate and atrocious behaviour occurs when the councillors involved are undergoing internal disciplinary processes of the ANC…
“Their behaviour is a clear and unambiguous message to the ANC that they no longer have an interest to serve the people of Tlokwe or to remain members of the ANC.
“We will, therefore, swiftly and decisively invoke our disciplinary tools to deal conclusively with this matter.”
The ANC vowed at the end of its elective conference in Mangaung to correct things at Tlokwe by unseating the DA and, two months later, did so.
The party was expected to release a statement on Wednesday.
The DA released a statement on Tuesday, announcing that it had “resumed control of the Tlokwe municipality” with the help of ANC councillors.
Tlokwe municipality spokesman William Maphosa said Tuesday’s meeting where Maphetle was once again replaced by Combrink was “illegal”.
He said the ANC chief whip, Dakota Legoete, had last week excused the ANC councillors from Tuesday’s scheduled council meeting because most of them were to appear before the party’s provincial disciplinary council in relation to Maphetle’s removal last year.
“The Speaker (Barei Segotso) called off the meeting last week, and the new date was yet to be announced.
“It later became apparent that the (ANC councillors) who were supposed to attend their disciplinary hearings did not go there, but were in the council chambers,” Maphosa said.
“In the absence of the mayor and Speaker, the group (including opposition parties) elected their own acting mayor and Speaker and resumed with an officially cancelled meeting.
“They then recalled (Maphetle) and voted in councillor Combrink.”
Maphosa said the meeting was illegal because the Speaker and the mayor had not appointed any people to act in their positions as prescribed by council rules.
The DA said it had appointed a mayoral committee within minutes – “something the ANC failed to do in three months in office”
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The Star
