By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
The political factional battles continue to show its ugly head amongst ANC members in various municipalities. This comes after ANC municipal leaders, who have been ousted, decided to take a legal route as they deem their removals unconstitutional.
However, it seems the battle is far from over as even though the courts rule on their favours, they are now ousted either through petitions or motion of no confidence tabled against them.
The latest municipal leaders to be eliminated are Ratlou Local Municipality acting mayor, Mamoitsadi Phaedi and the municipal speaker, Oabile Seabelo who were removed through petition. The same process has also unfolded in Matlosana, Ditsobotla, Naledi, Maquassi Hills and Tswaing.
Ratlou Local Municipality spokesperson, Lesego Metsi said: “The municipal council has resolved to reinvent its Executive Council Committee (ECC) and replaced the acting mayor and the speaker during a virtual Special Council meeting held on 14 January 2021.
“The move by the council comes as an impulse to regain political stability that has been viewed as a stumbling block to service delivery and smooth administration within the institution. The council resolved to elect Segametsi Ntladi as the new mayor.”
He said that the council also took note of petition and vote of no confidence against the council speaker, Oabile Seabelo and further resolved to remove him from the position of the speaker and to apply consequence management processes against him. Agisanang Ramosidi was elected as the acting speaker.
Meanwhile, the council of Ditsobotla Local Municipality has ousted mayor, Daniel Buthelezi and his Executive Committee with a motion of no confidence, during a Special Council sitting held on 15 January 2021.
According to the municipality spokesperson, Pius Batsile, the majority of councillors have unanimously voted in favour of the removal of the entire Executive Committee during that meeting.
“The council of Ditsobotla has instituted the motion of no confidence on the entire Executive committee based on its lacklustre performance and total failure to bring reports to the council about the appointment of a new financial management system, which is attributed among others to the municipality not billing consumers and producing annual financial statements for auditing purposes.
“Furthermore, the council is convinced that the process of not billing consumers has adversely affected the cash flow of the municipality and impacted on the funding of key service delivery programmes,” Batsile said.
Tsholofelo Moreo was elected as the new mayor.
Some section of ANC members believes that the ANC Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) in the North West is behind the removals of those ANC municipal leaders to further its self-interest. They accused the IPC of trying to capture municipalities in quest of redirecting all tenders to their cronies and raise money for the upcoming Elective Provincial Conference campaigns.
However, the ANC IPC spokesperson, Kenny Morolong refuted those allegations and called them hogwash. He said the ANC IPC is not a homogenous body, so it cannot remove people with intentions of amassing resources for the conference.
“The ANC IPC in the North West would not have issued the instruction for the removal of the Ratlou Local Municipality’s Chief Whip because in our discussions to remove troikas in five municipalities, Ratlou was not part of them. Any decision to remove an ANC member who occupies public office will be deemed to be in defiance of the position of the organization with issues of the matter of deployment.
“Once the comrade is removed without the sanction of the structure of the organization, we will instruct the comrades involved to reverse that decision. So, IPC will not be under any circumstances given the instruction for the removal of the Ratlou Local Municipality,” Morolong said.
He further said they will respond appropriately to this development after receiving a written report. However, Morolong added that there was an instruction that the troikas in Matlosana and Ditsobatla step down.
“We have instructed these comrades to step down. Our view is that this development is indicative of the ongoing squabbles in the caucuses of these municipalities. We will at an appropriate time as the ANC, provide leadership in respect of the removal of these troikas.
“It will never happen without proper political guidance. So, we will provide requisite guidance on how these processes must ensue. We are going to act on everybody who has chosen to defy the process of the organization,” he said.
Morolong also said they are concerned about ill-discipline that continued to be displayed by some of the ANC members. He said they are going to take harsh actions against the embattled JB Marks Local Municipality mayor and the Lekwa-Teemane Local Municipality, Mpho Pilane.
“We are going to act on members of the troikas, the mayor of the JB Marks Local Municipality and the mayor of the Lekwa-Teemane. The ANC must prevail over its deployees and it is our responsibility to ensure that the instructions of the IPC is carried and implemented.
“We are disappointed that ANC deployees are yet to heed to the call of the organization. There are challenges of ill-discipline and improper conduct by ANC members and deployees within the organization,” he said.
Morolong said this is one reason why the IPC was established to rebuild, renew and unite the ANC. However, Morolong admits that they knew that they will come across members of the ANC under normal circumstance who want to defy the call to contribute to the unity of the ANC.
“There is also a committee that addresses those who are in the wrong. This matter continues to be handled by the IPC and we will continue to take disciplinary action against those members who continue to defy the decisions of the ANC. He said.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) provincial secretary, Papiki Babuile said: “Actually at the main, is not about service delivery. It is about accessing the funds of the municipalities to enrich themselves. It has been proven that the reshuffling and the removals of individuals have not to bear any fruits.
“The only interest the ANC has is to enrich them. If you go to Ditsobotla for example, they have started with the Municipal Manager who resigned, and later on, they have ousted the Chief Whip and the mayor. The new ones who are already appointed in these positions, they have already started to talk about tenders.”
He said in the Matlosana Local Municipality, the same process is unfolding too. Babuile added that the ANC deployees are fighting over tenders there.
“If the concern was about service delivery, why are they not raising those points in their Portfolio Committees in various municipalities?” asked Babuile.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) Chief Whip in North West, Freedy Sonakile shared the same sentiments. Sonakile said the removal of ANC municipal leaders by their own, is just a mere factional politics at play, nothing serious.
“Those that they are replacing them with had an oversight role to play and to point out at all wrongdoing but they kept quiet. They can’t only wake up 6 months before elections. What the people of North West need now is a new government, not recycled cadres,” he said.
The Guardian 