Errant Mogale City may face sanction
The future of Mogale City hangs in the balance as the municipality has not passed its budget and integrated development plan.
There are now grounds for Gauteng co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Paul Mashatile to put the municipality under administration as it is noncompliant with the Municipal Finance Management Act.
If a budget is not passed by July 1, the most extreme sanction would be placing the municipality under administration.
It is yet to be seen how Mashatile, who is ANC chairman in Gauteng, will deal with the situation because the municipality is no longer DA-led.
Mogomotsi Mogodiri, his spokesman, said Mashatile was “extremely concerned” about the continuing noncompliance by Mogale City. “The provincial government is doing everything to ensure that Mogale City executes its constitutional mandate,” Mogodiri said.
The ANC won back the executive seat at the council in a secret ballot vote that resulted in former speaker Patrick Lipudi being elected mayor.
His election followed the shock ousting of DA mayor Michael Holenstein, which also took place via secret ballot.
The DA and the EFF, which are now in the opposition benches, have boycotted the council meetings in which the budget and integrated development plan were set to be passed, leading to the stalemate.
The ANC had no choice but to adjourn the council meetings, as the party holds 50% of the council seats, while the DA-led coalition and the EFF hold 50% plus one of the seats.
The governing party needed one councillor from the opposition benches to be quorate, but could not succeed amid the political impasse that has placed the West Rand town in administrative limbo.
A council meeting has been called for Tuesday, but it is unclear if the DA, the EFF, the Freedom Front Plus and the IFP will attend or boycott the meeting for the third time.
In terms of the Municipal Systems Act, a councillor could lose his or her seat if they failed to attend three consecutive council or committee meetings without a valid reason.
Nkosazana Zali, an external communications specialist for the municipality, said the council’s speaker had the discretion to take disciplinary measures against councillors including withholding their allowances, but this would be “a terrible thing to do”.
Alan Fuchs, constituency head for the DA in Mogale City, said the party had written to Mashatile, spelling out three prerequisites for attending the meeting: the DA budget must be adopted; the rules of council must be regularised; and the threats of disciplining councillors for a council meeting held in January must be set aside.