In a rush to correct its mistakes, the ANC in the North West has fired the Rustenburg local municipality council speaker and ordered councilors in 14 wards to resign.
This could result in risky by-elections in which the ruling party could lose its majority in the coalition council.
Speaker Koketso Mogomotsi was told to resign by Friday, but the instruction from cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Nono Maloyi is being challenged by a private foundation which claims it is illegal.
Brown Mogotsi Foundation executive chair Brown Mogotsi asked Maloyi to rescind his decision to appoint the acting municipal managers for Rustenburg and Kagisano-Molopo local municipalities.
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Breach of regulations
He said the appointments were in breach of public service regulations. He said the acting municipal managers were “handpicked” by politicians to serve them in their “private offices” and were not subjected to public service recruitment procedures.
Mogotsi said if Maloyi did not rescind the decision he may take the matter to court. Another bone of contention was the pending removal of 14 “parachuted” councillors in Rustenburg.
This could backfire as the ANC could lose its majority should it lose some of the vacant seats in the by-elections.
If it loses seats, it will be a minority party in the council coalition. A total of 76 councillors in North West were parachuted into councils as part of cadre deployment in the 2016 local government elections, against the will of communities.
The ANC has a dilemma: let them go and lose control of the Rustenburg council or keep them and face voters’ wrath in 2024. This is after the party’s national executive committee recently decided to respond to communities’ claims their candidates were replaced without their knowledge.
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