Opposition parties at the Moses Kotane Local Municipality, near Rustenburg in the North West, are concerned at the alleged failure of the council to appoint members of the mayoral committee.
They say since the election of new councillors in November last year, the council has allegedly been unable to appoint members of the mayoral committee, due to the factional battles among the African National Congress (ANC) councillors.
Moses Kotane is a rural local municipality with 70 council seats. The ANC has 46 seats, while the remaining 24, are held by opposition parties.
The council allegedly only sat twice since the elections and could not appoint Members of the Mayoral Council because of infighting among the ANC councillors. At issue is who should head the municipal Infrastructure and Technical Services portfolio.
Opposition parties are not impressed. EFF provincial secretary in the North West, Papiki Babuile says, “In the Moses Kotane Local Municipality, they have not yet appointed the MMC’s not only the MMC of Infrastructure but the MMC’s are not yet appointed and as a result that is hampering on service delivery because the ANC resolved in their own caucus on who must be the MMC but they failed to persuade council in making sure that relevant person is elected because of their internal battles.”
Opposition parties concerned about council failure to appoint members at Moses Kotane Municipality:
The DA in the council has weighed in on the matter. The DA Councillor Rebaone Rampe says, “Council took a resolution that councillor Thapelo Thobokwe will head the portfolio however from what we understand and what we have seen is that there is a certain councillor in the name of Hazel Ramokopelo who was then appointed in the position by the mayor without following processes that were followed in council. So as we speak, we are at a stalemate. Thing is not happening within the municipality.”
But the Mayor of the municipality, Nketu Nkotswe disagrees. She says MMCs have been appointed into their portfolios.
“Non has been removed from the exco. they are here, they are still members of the executive. We have reassigned, I did not decide on my own as the mayor. I met with the executive then we decided about the portfolios who do we place here? why do we place one here?”
However, the ANC Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) in the province, which is aware of these challenges, says a mechanism is being considered by the party to address them.
A spokesperson for the ANC IPC, Kenny Morolong says, “These divisions have also given rise to political interference in the administration. We have set in motion processes to unify these processes, these measures must come in not just restoring the unity of these caucuses but the hegemony of the ANC as the ruling party in these municipalities. We wish to issue a stern warning that our public representatives serve at the behest of the movement. Our IPC and IRC members have been directed to work with our deployed councillors to ensure maximum unity in our caucuses.”
A council sitting is allegedly scheduled for Monday morning, to among others, appoint MMCs and discuss infrastructure and technical services.
