Tlokwe councillors who voted to unseat former mayor Maphetle Maphetle should be applauded, Agang SA said on Friday.

“Agang SA deplores the firing by the ANC of councillors who stood up against an incompetent ANC mayor of Tlokwe,” Mamphela Ramphele’s newly-establish party said in a statement.

“We applaud these men and women for standing up and saying ‘enough is enough’.”

On Tuesday, Democratic Alliance councillor Annette Combrink was voted in as the new mayor for the second time since November.

DA North West leader Chris Hattingh said 29 councillors of all parties, including the African National Congress, unanimously voted to return Combrink to the position of mayor.

The North West ANC’s provincial disciplinary committee said on Wednesday 14 ANC councillors who voted to unseat Maphetle were expelled from the party. The expelled members would be removed as Tlokwe councillors.

While the DA was in charge last year, it asked for a forensic investigation into irregularities at the municipality. The probe found the council irregularly bought Maphetle a R736,000 customised Mercedes-Benz. Maphetle was also allegedly abused the municipality’s disaster management fund and poverty relief fund. It was recommended in the report that formal disciplinary action be taken against him and other officials.

Agang SA on Friday said this was another case of deployment in the public service gone “horribly wrong”.

“Rather than disciplining wrongdoing, there is a tolerance of corruption in the narrow party interest, rather than putting the rights of citizens first. South Africa needs more politicians guided by duty and conscience who can speak truth to power, even to their own,” it said.

-Sapa