By OBAKENG MAJE

The embattled Greater Taung Local Municipality (GTLM) is expected to be placed under administration. This comes after the municipality has two mayors, chief whips, and municipal speakers.

On 13 December 2023, 26 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.

The latter accused the former of widespread corruption and maladministration. They alleged that, this has 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 in the municipality.

North West MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA), Nono Maloyi met with said the purported election of the political office bearers at the municipality transacted in the proceedings of the impugned council sitting on 23 December 2023 is unlawful.

“We refer with specific emphasis to the meeting of councillors of the GTLM that I convened 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 the 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 on 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 at 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 a 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 legal prescriber process was instituted under such purported election as enjoined by Section 29 and 29 (a) of the Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998.

“We wish to advise councillors that, we have taken the 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 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 meets, 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 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.

Now, the North West Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA) Head of Department (HoD), Dr Ben Bole is set to meet with municipal employees today at 11am, to introduce Invocation of Section 139 (1) (a).

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Picture: The embattled Greater Taung Local Municipality logo