VANDERBIJLPARK. – The Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) opened cases of fraud against the Speaker of the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM), Sibongile Soxuza at the Vanderbijlpark Police station this afternoon, Tuesday.

During the third Budget Adjustment Sitting of the Council today, the budget was passed, however, FF Plus and the DA said that Soxuza manipulated the votes in favour of her party, the ANC, and that proper Council procedures were not followed.

Speaking to Sedibeng Ster at the police station, DA Leader in Sedibeng, who is also the Ward 15 Councillor, Prudence Hlanyane, said that the DA, FF Plus and the Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) were against the passing of the tabled budget in the meeting.

The last Mid-term Budget Adjustment Sitting was stalled following a walkout staged by the Democratic Alliance (DA), Freedom Front Plus (FFPlus), and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) last Wednesday.

The ELM Council had also failed to pass the budget on February 26.

• 40 Councillors voted against (DA, FF+, EFF)
• 42 Councillors voted in favour (ANC and its coalition partners)
• 1 abstained (ACDP)

Soxuza is said to have incorrectly announced that 46 voted in favour and 37 against.

“The numbers do not add up to the members who were in attendance, those that were for, and those that were against. The Speaker needs to come up with answers as to where she got the number the she declared as the outcome at the end of voting. The were not that much people in the meeting. The votes exceed the members that voted, for and against the budget being passed. This is fraud,” Hlanyane said.

She added that the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) abstained while the Pan African Congress (PAC) was not in attendance.

“We were not given a chance to object, or raise questions. The budget was passed (illegally) just like that.”

Gerda Senekal, the Caucus leader of FF Plus in the Elm said, “The constitution is very clear that there needs to be a majority of voters to get the budget through. Today the case was that there were only forty-two votes against forty votes but when the numbers were tallied by the Speakers office it came to 46 and thirty-seven which is clearly not a true reflection of what transpired today in Council, but we are not surprised that this happened.”

ANC Sedibeng Secretary, Jason Mkhwane said, “We deny the allegations of vote rigging and fraud. The DA and FFPlus are playing politics, trying to undermine the democratic process. We encourage the speaker to respond to the charges and prove the budget was passed fairly.”

Seeking comment from Soxuza, Sedibeng Ster was referred to the ELM Spokesperson, Makhosonke Sangweni who said, “We deny the allegations of vote rigging and fraud. The DA and FF Plus are playing politics; this was a democratic process in full view of the public and media. We must all respect democracy and not cast aspersions in a constitutional and transparent process.”