‘Act on councillors’

SACP URGES ANC ACTION ON ILLEGAL NORTH WEST OUSTING Group unlawfully removes speaker and municipal manager.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) has called on the ANC to intervene and act against its councillors after a speaker and a municipal manager were unlawfully removed at the Mamusa local municipality in

Schweizer-Reneke in North West.

SACP J Nkosi district secretary Sandile Kgosieng said the councillors ignored their constitutional mandate by collaborating with other parties to oust the two.

Seven ANC councillors, four from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and one from the AICM (Azanian Independent Community Movement) joined forces to vote out speaker Lesego Motlapele and force municipal manager Rantsho Gincane to take special leave.

But in terms of the Municipal Structures Act only the speaker, municipal manager or the MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs are authorised to call a special council meeting.

In terms of the Act, if the speaker or acting speaker refuses to call a meeting of the council as requested by the majority of councillors, the municipal manager, or in the absence or refusal by the municipal manager, a person designated by the MEC for local government in the province, may call and chair the meeting.

Working with their ANC counterparts, EFF councillors Kgosiethata Chubisi and Olebeng Mogorosi led the charge to remove Motlapele and suspend Gincane. The speaker had asked them to provide her with substantial proof regarding their allegations about the officials. Instead of supplying the information, they ignored the request and asked Gincane to convene the council gathering, but he refused.

Motlapele and Gincane had approached the High Court in Mahikeng to challenge the actions taken against them and asked to be reinstated. They have also asked the court to give an order that the councillors should pay the cost of the case from their own pockets if they lost.

Picture: AFP Giant panda Fu Bao eats bamboo in South Korea’s Everland amusement park. The female was born at the park and turned four years old this year. She will be transferred to the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda next month under an international agreement.