SDM fails to elect a new mayor
Meanwhile opposition parties said the delay in appointing the mayor will derail services in the SDM.
SEKHUKHUNE – The Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM) remains without a mayor after the municipality held its inaugural sitting last Thursday.
A total of 51 councillors were sworn in during the meeting of the fifth council.
To the shock of many, the council did not elect officer bearers (speaker, executive mayor and chief whip).
Steelburger/Lydenburg News understands that a group of ANC members in the district obtained an urgent High Court interdict to stop the appointment of the executive mayor.
The applicants want the ANC to stop the appointment of former mayor, Stan Ramaila, arguing that he was not on the list of the mayoral candidates.
According to a source within the party, their preferred candidates are Julia Mathebe, Maleke Mokganyetsi and David Chego.
The majority party is the ANC with 32 seats, followed by the official opposition, the EFF, with 11 seats, and the DA with four.
New entrant in the district council, the Socialist Agenda of Dispossessed Africans has two seats, the Bolsheviks
Party has one seat, while another new entrant, the South African Maintenance and Estate Beneficiaries Association, also has a single seat.
Of the 51 councillors, 20 were directly elected as proportional representative councillors to the district municipality.
After the swearing in of the councillors, the presiding officer of council, the municipal manager, Maureen Ntshudisane, adjourned the meeting, to be reconvened at a date that shall be communicated in due course.
Meanwhile opposition parties said the delay in appointing the mayor will derail services in the SDM.
“The ANC’s fights must not come at the expense of the communities. People from our communities need services urgently. They cannot be fighting for positions while people need water and other services,” said Tsheko Malepe of the EFF.
