Tshwane MMC ‘not a citizen’
● The City of Tshwane was told about former roads and transport MMC Sheila Senkubuge’s questionable citizenship status as far back as 2017.
An e-mail from Lerato Machaba, the municipality’s protocol officer in the office of the mayor, shows that senior officials in the metro knew about the issue just six months after Senkubuge was elected as a DA councillor in 2016.
Senkubuge resigned on Friday shortly after an affidavit was circulated that alleged she had arrived in SA from Uganda in 2011 and was not yet a naturalised citizen when she was elected.
Machaba’s e-mail, sent to Sello Mphaga, the current divisional head for sustainability in the mayor’s office, refers to discussions about Senkubuge between metro officials and the department of home affairs.
“Unfortunately today around 10.45 I received a call from Home Affairs notifying me that the MMC [member of the mayoral committee] Sheila Lunn Senkubuge is a non-citizen of the Republic of SA and she doesn’t qualify to have an Official Passport not even a tourist passport of RSA,” the e-mail said.
Senkubuge could not be reached for comment yesterday. Mphaga declined to comment and Machaba could not be reached at the time of going to print.
Mayoral spokesperson Omogolo Taunyane referred the Sunday Times to DA Gauteng leader John Moodey.
Moodey said this week Senkubuge had told him that she was born in the former Transkei and had also studied there. “We had accepted her as a candidate on the fact that she was a registered voter.”
The citizenship row blew up days after Senkubuge featured in an alleged “sex recording” with mayor Stevens Makgalapa.
Makgalapa, who is on special leave, is facing a DA probe over the matter. The ANC and EFF have filed a motion of no confidence in a bid to have him removed from the post.