ANC gambles by axing councillors
978 04-07-2013 Police officers block community members from trying to enter the office of Tlokwe City executive mayor and councilor Maphetle Maphetle after they burned ANC t-shirt outside the municipal building. Picture: Tiro Ramatlhatse 978 04-07-2013 Police officers block community members from trying to enter the office of Tlokwe City executive mayor and councilor Maphetle Maphetle after they burned ANC t-shirt outside the municipal building. Picture: Tiro Ramatlhatse
Johannesburg - By expelling its “ill-disciplined” councillors at the troubled Tlokwe local municipality, the ANC has automatically taken a gamble and opened up nine council seats for contest in by-elections.
Nine of the 14 councillors who were dumped by the party this week were ward councillors, while only five were party proportional-list councillors who can be replaced by the next candidate on the election list.
The ruling party is expected to face tough competition in the highly contested North West municipality as tension heightens within its ranks - both in the council and within the community.
On Thursday, a group of community members sympathising with the expelled councillors embarked on a protest outside the municipal offices in Potchefstroom, burning ANC T-shirts.
One of the placards held by the protesters read “Take your corrupt ANC, we will remain with our votes”. Another one read “You can expel us from ANC but you can’t expel us from the community”.
A while later, another group of about eight community members managed to sneak into the council offices, going all the way up to the mayor’s office, before guards stopped them from gaining entry.
The group were screaming and demanding to see ANC mayor Maphetle Maphetle, who they described as corrupt. They were later asked to vacate the building by the police.
The ANC expelled the 14 Tlokwe councillors from the party on Wednesday, citing their “ill-discipline” after the group again allowed the DA to resume control of the municipality, as it had done in November last year.
The group were punished for failing to oppose a motion of no confidence against Maphetle on Tuesday, leading to his replacement with a DA councillor, Annette Combrinck.
This happened on a day when they were supposed to appear before the party’s disciplinary committee for the incident last November.
Tuesday’s incident comes just five months after Maphetle was reinstated, after Luthuli House intervened.
Meanwhile, lawyers representing the DA wrote a letter to Maphetle and his mayoral committee members on Thursday, asking them to vacate their offices, failing which they will approach the court so the new mayor and her committee can be able to run the municipality.
“We have given them notice to vacate the office by the end of business (Friday), and if the situation persists and they remain there, then we’ll approach the court to seek an order for them,” said DA councillor Jurie Moolman.
But Maphetle’s office hit back at the DA, saying they were the ones who were not legitimate as they were elected at an “irregular meeting”.
Tlokwe municipality spokesman Willie Maphosa said Combrinck was not recognised as a mayor and that Maphetle was still at the helm.
“In fact, we’re preparing court papers to challenge Tuesday’s meeting where (Combrinck) was elected. We want the court to declare that meeting null and void because it was not called by the Speaker,” Maphosa said.
A political analyst from North West University, Professor Andre Duvenhage, said a technical judgment could be expected in a looming legal showdown.
“Both parties stand equal chances in getting the court to rule in their favour. Whatever the court outcome, and even if Maphetle is brought back, instability will persist in Tlokwe due to factions within the ANC itself,” he said.
Duvenhage said the scale of the mood on the ground was not favourable for the ANC, adding that its chances of winning the by-elections were not good.
poloko.tau@inl.co.za
The Star