By Tladi Moloi
Change is afoot in the Maluti-a-Phofung local municipality, where the executive mayor, speaker and the chief whip all face a motion of no confidence.
Executive Mayor Gilbert Mokotso and Speaker Paratlane Motloung, both from Map 16 Civic Movement coalition government, as well Chief Whip Moeketsi Lebesa of the Dikwankwetla Party of South Africa, will on Friday learn their fate after the tabling of the ANC’s motion of no confidence.
The sitting to table the motion is set to take place at the Phuthaditjhaba Multipurpose Hall at 10:00am.
The ailing Free State municipality is set to continue with the council meeting which was deferred by the speaker on 5 November following chaotic scenes.
Before the sitting started, the speaker announced that the police had arrived to arrest three ANC councillors who had been accused of stealing the municipal escalator.
After the meeting was deferred, councillors said they hoped that the speaker would reconvene it. But he did not do so until they sent him a letter demanding that the council meet.
Political parties in the municipality such as the DPSA, the ANC, the EFF, the DA, African Content Movement, South African Royal Kingdom Organisation, African Independent Congress and African Transformation Movement wrote a letter to the speaker instructing him to call a special council meeting.
Mandlenkosi Dlamini, the ANC chief whip in the municipality, said they joined other parties to write the letter because they wanted the motion to be tabled before the end of the year.
“The speaker deferred the council meeting earlier this month and he should have called the meeting seven days after that date which he did not do. We were aware of his delaying tactics because he was aware that they were going to lose the motion. He doesn’t want to leave office,” he said.
Alison Oates, a DA councillor, said the DA decided to join those who wrote the letter because they felt that the speaker was not prioritising the meeting and there were many things that had to be discussed which affected the community.
“Apart from the motion of no confidence we had some things which had to be discussed before we could get an equitable share. But it was bad governance from the speaker to have delayed the meeting, I must say,” she said.
Motloung has confirmed to Scrolla.Africa that he has indeed received a letter from the councillors. However he rubbished allegations that he had delayed the sitting intentionally because he did not want to leave office.
“I can confirm that the meeting will be held tomorrow. It is not true that I was delaying the motion because I was buying time so that it could expire,” he said.
Pictured above: The executive mayor of the Maluti-a-Phofung local municipality Gilbert Mokotso
