The Freedom Front Plus in the Lekwa-Teemane local municipality which comprises of towns of Bloemhof and Christiana in the North West, is planning to propose a motion of no confidence against the municipal mayor, Sebang Motlhabi. This as it reported that the mayor has rented an expensive german made vehicle for his official use.
The Freedom Front Plus says this happens against the backdrop of a municipality that is on the brink of collapse, due to poor service delivery and lack of funds.
The Lekwa-Teemane municipality operates with an unfunded budget of approximately R 350million. The municipality depends entirely on grants from the treasury department and does not have the capacity to collect money from services rendered. It is also unable to effectively render services to the community.
Sewerage spillage, potholes and lack of refuse collection are worrying factors for the community. Now, with the spending of over R 131 000 monthly on a rented vehicle for the mayor, the Freedom Front Plus says this is totally unacceptable.
Freedom Front Councillor, Albert Nel, says they will go ahead with the motion …
”The amounts here involved is about R131 000 a month for the past two months. That is totally unacceptable in the situation where you sit with a council that do not have money to buy tools, to do things for the community for basic service delivery”, says Nel.
Some residents seem to agree with the Freedom Front Plus. Jan Du Plessis, is a local businessman who says he had to close his business due to sewer spillage in front of his shop.
”I had to stop my operations of selling food because of the drain and spillage that is running down the streets in front of my place. I have lost tremendous income at the moment I am only living from a pension. I am renting out rooms at the same time which I had to change to sort of monthly people because I cannot get overnight people because of what is happening with the drain that is happening here”, he says.
Response
When responding on the matter, Lekwa-Teemane municipal mayor, Sebang Motlhabi, says he had no say in which type of car he gets.
”As to which car that I get provided with it is not my instruction I get to be provided a car by the administration. Ours is to put a request not to determine which kind of a car that we must use this part of the tools of the trade,” says Motlabi.
The spokesperson for the ANC Interim Provincial Committee in the North West, Kenny Morolong, has issued a stern warning against ANC councillors who might collude with opposition parties to remove the mayor.
“Should any of the ANC elect to support this frivolous motion, the ANC will have to prevail on them. There has been a lot of acts of defiance in the province and the PWC has expressed itself on the past on a number of these acts of defiance and at an appropriate time, we will express ourselves with respect to the next course of action,”Morolong says.
Should the motion be granted, it is expected to be debated within a week.
