By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
A special council sitting of the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality to elect a new executive mayor has been called off amid threats against some councillors.
This follows the surprise election of a DA councillor as the speaker of the embattled municipality. On Wednesday, Maryke Davies defeated ANC speaker candidate and Mangaung ANC regional chairperson Lawrence Mathae.
In a communique to the councillors, the new speaker Davies advised them that as a result of threats and intimidation at the council, the sitting scheduled for Thursday will be cancelled.
Davies said to calm the current prevailing situation, a new date, time and venue will be determined and a new agenda will be issued to all councillors once calm and stability are restored.
“We cancelled the council meeting because we received messages yesterday of threats to the lives of councillors and officials ahead of today’s council meeting, that there was going to be a protest boycott and all of those kinds of things. So just for the safety of everybody, we decided to cancel today’s meeting,” Davies added.
On Wednesday, 12 ANC councillors voted with the DA and EFF to topple the ANC’s majority from reclaiming the position of speaker of the council. This after the former speaker, who was recalled by her own party, resigned this month.
We understand that a clique of councillors that voted with opposition parties were angered by the suspension of former Mangaung Metro Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC), Patrick Monyakoane, and the chairperson of the Mangaung Regional Committee’s parallel structure.
ANC’s Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) Provincial Secretary, Polediso Motsoeneng, earlier announced the suspension of Monyakoane and cited a 2012 case where Monyakoane was charged with assault.
In the letter to Monyakoane, the letter read: “The adopted guidelines of the ANC provide that if a member of the ANC has been indicted in a court of law, that member should step aside voluntarily and if that member refuses to step aside that member should be suspended from the ANC pending the finalisation of his or her court case”.
“It is common cause that you are indicted in a court of law. You have repeatedly refused to step aside, as per the guidelines, despite requests for you to do so.
“In the light thereof, please be advised that you are hereby suspended with immediate effect, as a member, pending the finalisation of your court matter.”
However, these are not the first disgruntled ANC councillors in the Mangaung Metro council to vote against one of theirs in favour of the opposition party’s motion.
The ANC caucus in the metro has been one of the most divided caucuses with deep and rooted infighting.
In January, the ANC recalled its mayor of Mangaung Mxolisi Siyonzana due to his failure to improve service delivery in the metro.
The municipality was placed under administration by national government in April last year, due to “significant financial and service delivery failures”.