ANC in Mangaung expels 8 members for voting for DA’s Maryke Davies as speaker

The African National Congress (ANC) in the Mangaung region has expelled 8 of its members, who it believes, voted with opposition parties to elect the Democratic Alliance (DA)’s Maryke Davies as the council speaker.

Addressing a media briefing in Bloemfontein, on Friday, the party says the members, who were councillors in the Mangaung Metro were repeat offenders.

The ANC’s regional chairperson adds that they will ensure stability in the metro and that a mayor will soon be elected.

Mangaung Metro special council meeting underway.

Mangaung deputy mayor Mapaseka Mothibi-Nkoane and former speaker Stefani Lockman-Naidoo are among the eight members of the ANC who have been expelled from the party.  Proportional representation councillor Patrick Monyakoana is another.

The party announced that it was also discussing the future of three more councillors.

This week, the ANC’s Lawrence Mathae lost to the DA’s Maryke Davies, who was elected council Speaker.  The party is now considering legal action to challenge the legitimacy of the council sitting.

“We have called you to communicate our decision to expel eight councillors. it’s four pr councillors and four ward councillors. these are councillors that have been continuously voting with the opposition. There may be more, however, these 8 councillors are the ones that in the past we provided with a fair opportunity to can present their case.”

The ANC says it is its prerogative to approach the courts to reverse the outcome of the council sitting, even after it had participated in the proceedings.

The party says the council sitting was not procedurally, or properly constituted.  It added that the acting municipal manager Tebogo Motlashuping convened the sitting, despite his time in office having lapsed.

“We strongly believe that the council that took place on Wednesday was not convened by a person who has the authority, you’d know that the Acting City Manager, his term of deployment or assignment to the municipality has come to an end. a council which set a few weeks ago concluded to not to extend his term of office rather a different name was suggested by councillor,” Mathae explains.

The ANC says it is confident that it will retain the mayorship of the city, as it had the cooperation of four other smaller parties.