By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The newly-elected tshwane mayor Dr Murunwa Makwarela has been disqualified as a councillor following news that he was declared insolvent by a court of law in 2016.
As a result, Tshwane has no mayor following the disqualification of Makwarela, who was elected mayor last week.
City of Tshwane City manager Johann Mettler has written to the Gauteng Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), informing it of a casual vacancy after Makwarela’s disqualification as a Cope proportional representative (PR) councillor.
Makwarela was catapulted into the mayor’s position on February 28, 2023 after he surprisingly broke ranks with multiparty coalition partners and sided with the ANC and EFF who backed him for the position.
The multiparty coalition partners, which included Cope, DA, ActionSA, FF-Plus, ACDP and IFP were in agreement to elect former DA MP Cilliers Brink as a mayor.
Makwerela is insolvent and according to the Constitution and municipal legislation, he can not be elected mayor.
“The disqualification is in terms of Section 158 (1) (c) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, also read with Section 47(1) (c) of the Constitution. Furthermore, this disqualification is also in terms of Schedule 1 Section 19 (c) (d) of the Municipal Structures Act (Act 117 of 1998). Item 18 of part 3 of Schedule 1, of the Local Government Structures Act (Act 117 of 1998), stipulates that if a councillor elected from a party list ceases to hold office, the chief electoral officer of the IEC must declare in writing the person whose name is at the top of the applicable party list to be elected in the vacancy.”
However Makwerela said won’t back down but he would immediately approach the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria to interdict the announcement of his sudden exit made by Mettler.
“We are interdicting it. The city manager is trying to cover himself,” he said.
He said the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) process which eventually saw him ushered in as Cope’s sole councillor in Tshwane was properly followed.
“Our lawyers had written to him that the process was properly followed but he didn’t consider that,” Makwarela said.
Although insolvency in and of itself is not a scandal, the Constitution prohibits an unrehabilitated insolvent from having a public office, especially the Mayoral position.