The Mamusa Local Municipality offices in Schweizer Reneke, North West, have been shut down by disgruntled community members.
Following a directive from the African National Congress (ANC), some councillors elected former mayor Doctor Batsi as council Speaker. ANC councillors elected one of their own, Lesego Motlapele, instead.
Their contention is that Batsi does not qualify for the position as he allegedly does not have a matric certificate. The move has divided both the council and the community.
Scores of disgruntled residents are outside the Mamusa local municipal offices where they are preventing anyone from entering the premises.
They say they will keep the municipal offices closed until the ANC deals with their grievance by acting against the councillors who defied the party mandate.
Coordinator of the ANC Interim Provincial Interim Committee in the North West, Hlomani Chauke, allegedly met the disgruntled group sometime this week.
He made calls for the defiant councillors to be dealt with, saying that the municipality will remain closed in the matter is not resolved.
The municipality has since appealed to residents to refrain from occupying the local offices as this is illegal, as stated in the Facebook post below:
In the report below, tensions ran high in the municipality after Lesego Motlapele was voted in as Speaker:
