MATIKA GIVEN THE BOOT
IN AN UNPRECEDENTED move, 33 councillors at Sol Plaatje Municipality yesterday revolted against the municipal leadership to appoint an interim mayor.
ANC, DA and EFF councillors, along with an independent councillor, voted in support of the motion of no confidence in Sol Plaatje executive mayor Mangaliso Matika and elected ANC councillors Pule Thabane and Boitumelo Stout as acting mayor and acting Speaker respectively.
None of the councillors in attendance objected to the removal of the mayor and applauded when the motion was passed.
Neither Matika, the acting municipal manager Ruth Sebolecwe, or the acting Speaker Ben Springbok, attended the council meeting.
DA chief whip Christopher Phiri turned down his nomination to serve as acting mayor.
After sitting inside chambers for the whole morning waiting for a response for their application to hold an urgent special council meeting, the councillors decided to vote in their own acting speaker (Stout).
The councillors said they were guided by their conscience to prevent another city-wide shutdown at all costs.
“We cannot be silent when the community is crying. This is not about politics, ourselves, our families or about living an extravagant lifestyle. It is about serving our communities. We cannot wait with our arms folded in our comfort zone while the city is burning. The municipality might as well collapse if we do not fulfil our duty to save the city from another shutdown.”
They accused the mayor of running a “one man show” while they had apparently sighted a sangoma that was apparently walking in the corridors, on his way to assist the mayor.
“The community were threatening to start striking yesterday afternoon already. We will be pelted with the same stones if we do nothing.”
Calling for the immediate removal of Matika, Phiri stated that the mayor had committed over 11 “extreme failures”, including failing to act in the best interests of the community and failing to provide political guidance and leadership while the city was in crisis and business lost revenue and schooling was disrupted.
He said that Matika “manipulated people to get his way”.
“The municipality has no place for corrupt and self-serving politicians. The former Speaker, Santa Johnson, was removed without following due processes when Matika was the one who should have left.
“Ratepayers’ money is being used for personal gain. The mayor is ruthless and manipulative and is not fit to hold office. The mayor has failed to clean the city, fix the roads, sewage problems and street lights. Under his watch the city has lost its sparkle.
“He has hijacked council and it is time for us to stand up and be held accountable.
Slipped
“The mayor slipped through a R13 million expenditure for infrastructure upgrade without consulting council. The issue of the electricity tariffs have not been discussed in council. The R260 electricity basic tariff would have been implemented without any public participation, which has been the root cause of the recent unrest. The adoption of the budget was unprocedural and the mayor took over a month to react to complaints.“
Phiri further stated that Matika was criminally charged for assaulting a municipal official and had received undue benefits including rental accommodation and a mayoral car valued at R1 million.
“There is a dire need to replace the municipal fleet. The mayor disposed of municipal land in Tugela Street to himself and his cronies. Two plots of land in Southridge were given to the Northern Cape provincial commissioner, Lieutenant-General Risimati Shivuri,” added Phiri.
DA councillor Reinette Liebenberg pointed out that pleas to the acting municipal manager and acting Speaker regarding the urgency in preventing planned protest action by holding the special council meeting yesterday, were bluntly ignored.
The acting Speaker, Ben Springbok, turned down a request to hold an urgent special council meeting, to debate a motion of no confidence in the mayor, at 10am yesterday morning.
Springbok stated that the 24hour notice period for the meeting had not been complied with.
“Some of the councillors withdrew their signatures to attend the 10am council meeting as they were under the impression that the meeting would have been held on Monday. A total of 33 councillors Danie van der Lith and Sandi Kwon Hoo PREPARED: Police monitored the meeting.
would have to be in attendance in order to convene the meeting. The next ordinary council meeting will be on August 1.”
Manager in the Office of the Mayor, George Mosimane, did not recognise the meeting and believed that the appointments that were made during the meeting were invalid.
“As far as we are concerned there is no new mayor. Things will go back to normal tomorrow (Thursday). The request for the special council meeting was only received today (Wednesday). There
were a number issues of non-compliance while no notices were issued for the meeting. We will not respond to the illegal gatherings of friends. This was nothing but a desperate ploy.”
Acting mayor Pula Thabane indicated that he would adopt a “wait and see approach”.
“We foresee that the current leadership will not recognise the new appointments. We will deal with these issues one step at a time. We are calling for the protection of all the councillors that attended the special council meeting.”