Mangaung Metro pledges support for strategic team deployed by government

The Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality in Bloemfontein, in the Free State, has pledged to support the strategic team that national government has deployed after it placed it under administration.

The aim of the team is to turn around the financially troubled metro.

Tebogo Motlashuping has been appointed as the new and fourth Acting City Manager in a period of a year after Acting City Manager Mzingisi Nkungwana’s contract ended.

Executive Mayor Mxolisi Siyonzana says plans are in place to restore stability in the metro.

“We as Mangaung, we will give all the support to the intervention team. We welcome this team as a city, and all matters that relate to the investigation and so on – we are going to avail all the information that is needed. I’m happy that the team will report to the council from time to time. We will receive the reports, we will obviously report to National Treasury as well as Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta),” says Siyonzana.

Calls for Executive Mayor to be fired

In March, opposition parties in the embattled metro are calling for the removal of the Executive Mayor, Mxolisi Siyonzana.

The battle lines have been drawn just months into the new municipal administration.

This move follows violent service delivery protests in the Metro.

Siyonzana’s predecessor, Olly Mlamleli, was ousted through a motion of no-confidence in August 2020.

Mangaung Metro opposition parties call for Executive Mayor Mxolisi Siyonzana to be removed

Meanwhile, earlier this month, opposition parties in Mangaung Metro Municipality attributed African National Congress (ANC) factional battles as the root cause of instability in the metro.

Mangaung was placed under mandatory intervention by the Free State government in December 2019 after it failed to implement the financial recovery plan.