The Ditsobotla mayor's reasons for resigning have been brought into question after a letter surfaced contradicting the stated reasons she quit hours after being elected.
On Monday, the Patriotic Alliance's Boitumelo Elizabeth Lethoko resigned as mayor hours after being elected during a council sitting. She said the ANC had tried to smuggle in a new municipal manager for the troubled municipality.
In her letter, Lethoko, who has a criminal record, said she was resigning because the ANC “surprisingly’’ tabled a matter to have the administrator appointed municipal manager.
In her resignation letter, Lethoko said꞉ “As you well know, following conclusion of all items on the agenda, a surprise matter was tabled — that of appointing [the] administrator as the municipal manager. At no point did the ANC — your party — raise this important matter with me or the Patriotic Alliance’s president, Gayton McKenzie, who was present all day in the Ditsobotla council for such important coalition discussions,’’ said Lethoko.
“The manner in which this was performed was duplicitous in the extreme and was clearly intended to sidestep proper council procedures... My party the Patriotic Alliance will not be associated with underhanded [sic] tactics, which one can only presume are intended to cover up corruption in Ditsobotla,’’ said Lethoko.
However, ANC North West spokesperson for provincial co-operative governance, Tumelo Maruping, said the party did not table any matter.
He said ANC member and speaker of council Fikile Jakeni read out a letter from the provincial co-operative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs (Cogta) department dated January 4. It stated that the administrator should assume the responsibilities of the municipal manager until the council was established and a suitable person was appointed.
“There was no motion or matter that was tabled. The speaker made an announcement that the administrator [James Mashigo] assumes the position of municipal manager as per the letter of Cogta and said now that the council has been constituted, it can start its own process of appointing a new municipal manager,’’ said Maruping.
Speaking in his capacity as co-operative governance spokesperson, Maruping said the current administrator had been seconded to act as the municipal manager until the council had been constituted and was ready to appoint a suitable person to the position.
He said the administrator's role as acting municipal manager should not exceed 90 days.
This means that regardless of who had been elected as the new mayor, the municipality was entitled to choose a new municipal manager within 90 days from January 4.
When contacted yesterday, Lethoko declined to comment and referred Sowetan to PA deputy president Kenny Kunene.
It has also emerged that Lethoko has a criminal record related to her work as a public representative in local government.
Lethoko was convicted of fraud and contravening the Municipal Finance Management Act by the Lichtenburg regional court. She was sentenced to a R10,000 fine or five years in prison.
Kunene said the party was aware of her criminal record and was not concerned about it.
“We are a party that gives people second chances. She paid her fine. Her criminal record speaks nothing to us. We do not care if her criminal record is expunged or not. What matters to us is that she understands the principles of the PA and is willing to do work for the organisation,’’ said Kunene.
Ditsobotla has had 14 municipal managers, four mayors, four speakers in six years resulting in a total collapse of governance.
The municipality, which covers towns such as Lichtenburg, Coligny and townships including Itsoseng in North West, is one of the worst run in SA. It been gutted by groupings wrangling for control of the public purse.
In June 2021, Clover SA announced that it was closing the country's biggest cheese factory and moving it from Lichtenburg to KwaZulu-Natal due to poor service delivery. The municipality is unable to render basic services such as an uninterrupted water supply, regular refuse removal and road maintenance, among others.
kokam@sowetan.co.za
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