President Cyril Ramaphosa has raised concerns about political instability in the capital city.
The city of Tshwane has not had a mayor for the past two weeks after the resignation of Murunwa Makwarela.
Makwarela was disqualified as a councillor after Tshwane city manager Johann Mettler discovered he was placed under sequestration in 2016.
However, Makwarela submitted a rehabilitation certificate, which was deemed a fake by the Gauteng North High Court, prompting his exit from council.
On Friday, newly elected speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana convened a special council meeting to elect a new mayor, which collapsed after the DA-led multiparty coalition members walked out of the chambers, leaving it without a quorum.
The walkout on Friday was as a result of Ndzwanana’s refusal to act on ActionSA’s request to remove from the chambers two councillors who were axed by the party.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya on Sunday said the president was concerned about the absence of a properly constituted mayoral committee to stabilise the municipality.
“The president is concerned more broadly about a number of issues that are currently impacting the effectiveness of local government. As a result, there’s been a concerted effort aimed at addressing the various issues that have been flagged with respect to undermining the capacity of local government structures from delivery to new mandates.
“The president is going to be monitoring very closely developments that will see some form of improvement with respect to the manner in which local government structures are led, managed and more importantly, the manner in which they deliver services to citizens.
“It will be ideal that whatever political processes that have to take place in Tshwane are concluded as speedily as possible so that service delivery can continue and be improved so that the Metro is brought to some level of stability,” Magwenya said.
Meanwhile, Ndzwanana has called another special meeting to elect a mayor on Wednesday at 10am.
ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said the investigation the party had launched found Mandla Mhlana and Mpho Baloyi had voted for Makwarela on February 28 and Ndzwanana when he was elected by secret ballot last week.
nkosin@sowetan.co.za
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