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Tshwane’s newly-elected mayor Murunwa Makwarela disqualified for being insolvent
COPE's Makwarela was elected just days ago with the backing of the ANC and EFF.
City of Tshwane’s mayor Murunwa Makwarela at Tshwane House, Pretoria, on 26 January 2022. Picture: Jacques Nelles
The City of Tshwane currently has no mayor after newly-elected Murunwa Makwarela was disqualified from holding office for being insolvent.
Makwarela was disqualified in terms of Section 47(1)(c) of the Constitution, which states that people who are insolvent cannot hold public office.
Tshwane’s city manager Johann Mettler has written to the Gauteng office of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to inform them of the vacancy that is left in the City.
Makwarela, a COPE councillor, was elected as Tshwane mayor on 28 February, with the backing of ANC and EFF councillors.
The statement issued by the City of Tshwane said “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”.
Cope will have to submit lists to fill the vacancy, it added.
It also said the vacancy must be filled within 14 days.
‘No plans for shake-up’ in Tshwane
The revelation that Makwarela has been disqualified comes a day after he issued a statement saying there were no plans for a shake-up in the mayor’s office.
“Regarding the appointment of the mayoral committee, I have been busy doing thorough consultations with our political partners. We are at the final stages of this process and we will soon announce a strong team that will restore service delivery in Tshwane,” he said.
He said he met with the City’s employees on Monday, and told them not to get distracted by ongoing political developments.
“Part of my meeting with the staff was to reiterate the commitments I made in my acceptance speech after my election as Executive Mayor on 28 February 2023. I want to return good governance to the capital city, as we owe it to Tshwane residents who are desperate for quality and effective service delivery.”
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Tshwane also without a speaker
On Monday, the City of Tshwane failed to elect a new speaker after the metro’s council sitting failed to reach a quorum.
Councillors from the Democratic Alliance (DA) and its multiparty coalition partners ActionSA, African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), FF Plus (FF+), and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) were missing from the council meeting. They claimed the meeting was called illegally.
The ANC, however, accused the parties of deliberately “sabotaging council activities”.
Lie detector tests
ActionSA’s councillors, meanwhile, were busy taking polygraph tests as the party tries to find out if any of its councillors had voted for Makwarela to become Tshwane’s mayor.
The EFF’s Obakeng Ramabodu disrupted the lie detector tests, accusing ActionSA of “side-stepping the authority of the municipal council”.
Watch: EFF disrupts ActionSA lie detector tests
ActionSA then accused Ramabodu of trespassing and stealing the polygraph equipment.
“This latest move by the EFF demonstrates how desperate they are to stop the truth from coming out and that they are willing to do anything to hide what is believed to be the criminal bribing of councillors within the coalition,” ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said in a statement.
Beaumont said the party would lay criminal charges against the three EFF councillors that disrupted the lie detector tests.
Additional reporting by Molefe Seeletsa.
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