Picture: The Greater Taung Local Municipality logo
By OBAKENG MAJE
North West MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA), Nono Maloyi said the purported election of the political office bearers at the Greater Taung Local Municipality (GTLM) transacted in the proceedings of the impugned council sitting ON 23 December 2023 is unlawful.
On 13 December 2023, 28 municipal councillors allegedly convened a special council sitting in the absence of municipal speaker, Grace Moipolai and municipal manager, Andrew Makuapane, where they elected Lerato Babuseng as the new Chief Whip, Kealeboga Seboko as the new municipal speaker and Onkarabile Tong as the new mayor.
This affected the smooth running of the municipality and forced Moipolai to request intervention from Maloyi. On 16 January 2024, Maloyi had a consultative engagement with all municipal councillors regarding the instability at the municipality.
“We refer with specific emphasis to the meeting of councillors of the GTLM that was convened by me on 16 January 2024 in the Pudumong Community Hall, near Taung. We wish to further indicate that, the purpose of such a meeting, was for me to facilitate a fact-finding mission against the backdrop of the submission that was made by Moipolai on allegations of continuous instability in the municipality as instigated by some councillors.
“Some of the key issues that have brought about the current stale and of the political governance in the municipality, are related to failure on the part of some councillors to observe the statutory programme of the municipality, particularly in relation to attendance of council sittings and persistent disregard for rules of order in such sittings, which inevitably lead to council proceedings collapsing and unable to process referred items,” he said.
Maloyi further said it is common cause that councillors brought a petition of the 11 December 2023 and based on the 16 January 2024 meeting, there was a purported council meeting convened by some councillors in the absence of the municipal speaker on 13 December 2023, which amongst other items, purportedly resolved that new political office bearers be elected, namely the speaker, mayor and chief whip.
Maloyi added the state of affairs is consistent with the assertion proffered by some of the councillors in attendance of the consultative meeting of 16 January 2024, wherein they hold a view that, the current speaker of the council, the mayor and chief whip are not recognised as the official political office bearers in the municipality.
“In consultative meeting, a further concession was made that, the only platform that processed the purported election of the three office bearers, was the purported council sitting of the 13 December 2023, and that no other legally prescriber process was instituted pursuant to such purported election as enjoined by Section 29 and 29 (a) of the Municipal Structure Act 117 of 1998.
“We wish to advice councillors that, we have taken liberty of consulting the relevant provisions of the above cited legislation to ascertain the implications of the resolution as purportedly made by the council sitting of the 13 December 2023 and have discovered that the legal injunction such as Section 29 (1) of the Structure Act, provides that the speaker of the municipality is conferred with an authority to decide as when and how the council meet, however, the discretion is limited by the fact that majority number of councillors may of their own accord, request the speaker to convene a council meeting, which the speaker must convene as requested,” said Maloyi.
He said further, Section 29 (1) (a) in the Act, provides that if the speaker or acting speaker refuses to accede to the request by such majority councillors as per Section 29 (1), that the municipal manager or in the absence or refusal by municipal manager to convene such a sitting, a person designed by the North West MEC for COGHSTA, my call and chair such a meeting.
Maloyi said their interest in the foregoing matter is not whether the councillors were at liberty or not at liberty of formulating their petition.
“However, our preoccupation is with what the cited provisions of the Municipal Structures Act prescribe on the procedural interpretation of the petition process. To this end, as duly confirmed during the consultative process that we had with councillors on the 16 January 2024, none of the affected councillors asserted that they had, subsequent to the speaker refusing to entertain their petition of the 11 December 2023.
“Either formally to the speaker refusing to entertain their petition of the 11 December 2023, either formally referred same to the municipal manager for action or sought the intervention of the MEC for COGHSTA to designate a person to call and chair such an envisaged sitting as per the prescripts of Section 29 (1) (a) of the Structures Act,” he said.
Maloyi said it is thus an inevitable consequence in the foregoing matter that, the incidental processes that arose out of the sitting if the council as convened by the petition on 13 December 2023, considering that the statutory pre-requisites as per Section 29 (1) (a) were not conclusively adhered to by the petitioners, cannot carry any legal force and effect and are null and void in toto.
He said they hope councillors will appreciate the constitutional, statutory and ethical duty that they owe to the observance of the rule and the sanctity of being the vanguard of constitutionalism in the Republic of South Africa by doing the right thing.
However, the newly-elected municipal speaker, Kealeboga Seboko said: “We have received the outcome from Maloyi regarding our meeting. However, we ask ourselves if he has the authority to nullify the council resolution. So, we are going to request him to assure us that we can act on his advice, despite being wrong or biased.
“He is applying political interference into the municipality’s affairs. Nevertheless, whatever his advice does not change our expression about the former troika and EXCO, we have lost our confidence in them. His decision does not change that and it will never do.”
Seboko said having a consultative engagement in good faith with them does not necessarily mean they are backing down. He said Maloyi is the MEC and they had to honour his call.
“However, the unfortunate part is that, he showed that the meeting we had was a futile exercise and if we knew, we would not have attended it. We cannot sit with someone who told us that he will consult EXCO on 17 January 2024, but did not do that because EXCO says it is not aware.
“We hoped he would have attached the letter from EXCO, including the minutes of the meeting that we had. So, he only responded to the letter that he received from the former municipal speaker. We are still consulting and we will see if we convene another council or not, based on his advice,” said Seboko.
The Guardian 