By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Mxolisi Siyonzana, the Executive Mayor of the Mangaung Metropolitan has survived the first motion of no confidence which was tabled by the AASD, EEF and DA on Thursday.
The three parties that tabled the motion, claims Siyonzana was responsible for the crisis the Mangaung finds itself in.
The erstwhile Mangaung Mayor, Olly Mlamleli was voted out by ANC councillors much to the anger of Thabo Meeko, the ANC spokesperson, and at that time in Maluti-A-Phofung the ANC councilors also voted their mayor out.
According to DA’s Mokgadi Kganakga, Fifty-three councilors voted against the motion and forty-five councilors were in the minority.
“It’s very clear with Paseka Nompondo’s presence during the voting for the motion of no confidence against the ANC mayor in Mangaung that the ANC has not resolved its factional battles.
They needed to send a watchdog or a school principal to watch over the proceedings to protect the last ANC mayor. This city will ever have ever have. We are disappointed in the outcome but we will not stop serving the people of this city and putting their needs first,” she said.
Cabinet has approved an intervention into the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, which includes Bloemfontein, placing it firmly in the hands of the national government.
“The invocation of a national intervention in terms of Section 139(7) of the Constitution implies that the municipality, national government will now act in the stead of the provincial executive. This type of intervention is mandatory and follows the same procedure as Section 139(5) of the Constitution, except that national government will now directly assume responsibility for these interventions.”
Section 139 of the Constitution gives the national government the authority to take over all municipal governance when it has failed to deliver basic services as mandated.
The Free State government placed the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality under a mandatory intervention in December 2019.
A mandatory financial recovery plan was subsequently imposed on the municipality in 2020.
After failing for more than two years to implement the financial recovery plan during the provincial intervention, the metro has now been placed under a national intervention.
The embattled metro was put under administration after the national government raised concerns about its “fiscal capacity”.
The national Cogta department also found that the municipality was operating at a deficit and that it was facing severe financial risks.