EFF, ANC hold special council sitting to try oust DA from Tshwane
The ANC's attempt to have the meeting on Wednesday was declined by the speaker.
Tshwane ANC Chair Dr Kgosi Maepa during a press briefing at Tshwane House, 25 November 2019, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles
A special council sitting petitioned by the EFF and ANC in an attempt to remove the DA from governing Tshwane is expected to take place on Thursday evening.
According to a statement from the acting city manager Makgorometje Makgata’s desk, a meeting for 2pm on Thursday was under consideration amid alleged discrepancies which resulted in the ANC rescheduling the time for the meeting on Wednesday from 6pm to 7pm.
The ANC’s attempt to have the meeting on Wednesday was declined by the speaker. As a result, the meeting was proposed for Thursday according to the party.
Tshwane ANC chairperson Kgosi Maepa, who confirmed the special council meeting would take place at 7pm on Thursday, said the party submitted a new petition for a special meeting to the speaker and city manager on Wednesday after their initial petition was questioned by the speaker.
Speaker Katlego Mathebe, in a statement on Wednesday, declined the urgent request by the ANC and EFF to hold a council meeting that could have seen Tshwane mayor Stevens Mokgalapa ousted as mayor. She cancelled the meeting citing the possible forging of signatures.
The speaker said she would investigate if councillors did not contravene the Councillors’ Code of Conduct after she allegedly found seven signatures in the ANC caucus document that did not match the signatures in the files of the council meeting’s attendance registers.
The statement read: “The same document also looks like a copy and paste of the signatures that were submitted to support the request of the [5 December 2019] meeting. Both these issues render the ANC document improper legally. The EFF document has only 25 signatures which do not satisfy the requirements of Section 29(1) Local Government: Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998. Therefore she resolved that she cannot legally convene the Special Council Meeting as per the request of the ANC and the EFF.”
Maepa called the DA “trash” for suggesting that the ANC forged their own signatures.
The DA said it would lay criminal charges against fraudulent councillors following allegations of “forgery” revealed by the speaker who planned to investigate the matter.
The DA will write to Gauteng cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Lebogang Maile to call for the suspension of those councillors involved in the alleged fraud.
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