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Chaos as councillors rebel against ELM Speaker coup
VANDERBIJLPARK. - Violence erupted in last Friday’s ELM council meeting after several ANC councillors openly defied the Speaker’s “covert coup” to take over municipal administration and finances through illegally “suspending” the legitimate Municipal Manager.
The Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC) expressed deep concern over the undermining of constitutional democracy and effective governance by the ELM Speaker, who insists a recent illegal – but overturned – suspension of the Municipal Manager is still in force.
“It’s nothing less than a coup by the ELM Speaker to prevent investigation into corruption by her allies and political friends – charges of treason should be investigated against her because she is trying to take over the legal administration of ELM,” says GTCoC CEO, Klippies Kritzinger.
Also feeding the violent outburst was the “absolute disgust” many ANC councillors felt after Speaker Maipato “Chu-Chu Shoes” Tsokolibane failed to visibly condemn recent gender-based abuse and threats of violence on social media against a female former acting Executive Mayor.
A police investigation against ELM CFO Andile Dyakala – a key Tsokolibane ally – on the gender abuse has been completed but a prosecution decision has not yet been taken, a Vanderbijlpark Police Spokesperson said on Monday.
Kritzinger has also demanded that Dyakala be arrested and denied bail should he be prosecuted after Dyakala allegedly verbally abused former acting Mayor Khetiwe Ntombela and others in an online meeting, followed by social media voice clips threatening violence against Ntombela.
Leseane was last Friday also ejected by Tsokolibane and escorted out of the council meeting by security guards. However, Leseane remains at work.
Tsokolibane did not respond to questions by Vaalweekblad this week on why she had not visibly condemned gender-based abuse and whether she regarded her political overreach into ELM administration as treason and a de facto takeover coup.
At the heart of the intensifying ELM power struggle are attempts by Tsokolibane to seize dictatorial powers over the ELM Executive and Administration, protect Dyakala from proposed disciplinary steps and prevent anti-corruption measures from being adopted by council, say political insiders.
Tsokolibane still insists Leseane is in fact suspended – whilst council does not even have the power to suspend officials – even after Executive Mayor Gift Moerane formally concluded there was no legal basis to such “suspension” and ordered Leseane back to work recently.
The illegal suspension is now being investigated by the Gauteng Province Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) MEC Lebogang Maile, he said this week in a media statement on a swathe of local government debacles including Tshwane and Sedibeng District Municipality.
Tsokolibane’s “covert coup” resulted in complete disruption of the council meeting on Friday as ANC and EFF members openly fought each other – and led to a walkout by DA and VF Plus councillors.
“Tsokolibane so desperately wants to be Emfuleni Mayor and so now she is destroying the ANC to feed her own political ambition by undermining ELM so her EFF friends can join her in a coalition government after local elections next year.
“This explains why Tsokolibane prevents all efforts against corruption and why she protects CFO Dyakala from his own incompetence and gross negligence – but ANC councillors have now had enough of her dictatorship,” several councillors said last week.
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