Opposition parties in the North West say the resignation of the Greater Taung Local municipality Mayor Oageng Seleka is a calculated move.
“I decided to listen to the ANC to say irrespective of the circumstances that let me hand over my resignation. I am doing this after engaging with the leadership of the ANC.”
MEC of Corporative Governance in the province Mmoloki Cwaile has welcomed the resignation
“As the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs including Human Settlements, we welcome the developments unfolding at Greater Taung Local Municipality. We can assure the public that there hasn’t been any unrest or failure to provide service by the municipality as a result of change of leadership.”
However, opposition parties are not impressed, they allege that the ANC wants to reappoint Seleka’s predecessor, Motlhabane.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the province says the North West ANC IPC is intending to reappoint Kgosi Motlhabane, who was removed as a mayor of the municipality in April.
EFF provincial secretary Papiki Babuile says, “It must be noted that the EFF welcomes the resignation of the current mayor of Taung and we want to state it on record that the ANC wants to bring back the mayor who was removed through the motion of no confidence by the EFF and a mayor who failed to lead the municipality and make sure that the municipality is stable.“
The Democratic Alliance alleges the ANC intends to reappoint Motlhabane in order to benefit from the reported mining license of Batlhaping Ba-Ga-Maidi.
“We understand that there is a pending matter of the mining license for the Gamaidi community that the ANC can benefit strongly from if Kgosi Motlhabane is brought back. Remember Mgosi Motlhabane is a Kgosi and he can use his influence to talk to the community, especially the community that vowed not to vote if the mining matter is not resolved” , says DA spokesperson for CoGTA, Freddy Sonakile.
The North West ANC IPC did not refute the allegations of Motlhabane’s intended reappointment, but says the party will convene a caucus to discuss the matter.
“The ANC in the North West province welcomes the resignation of comrade Seleke. Comrade Seleke’s resignation represents an affirmation of the centrality of the ANC in matters related to deployment and redeployment of mayors. The IPC through its deployees has met with the troika of the said municipality. We will subsequently convene an ANC caucus to shed more light on this matter,” says spokesperson of the North West ANC IPC, Kenny Morolong.
Meanwhile, political analyst Professor Andre Duvenhage says municipal councils are left with their hands tied as they are now dictated to by the ANC IPC as to whom to elect.
“We have a number of municipalities were there’s so called parallel structures or conflicts resulting into more than one leader prominent and that is also the case in Taung. Clearly that is leaving the council of this specific municipality and other municipalities without a proper definition, without a proper task. At the end of the day there’s no good governance and management and the result is service delivery that is not happening “
A new mayor for the Greater Taung Local Municipality will be announced in due course.
Taung mayor removed from office:
