According to an opposition party councillor who attended the council meeting on 31 March, they had no idea what lay in store when the meeting was conducted virtually over the Zoom app.
Before the council dealt with other items, the speaker, Mr Elvis Mphithikezi, informed the house that the chief whip, Mr William Mosiane, had a letter to be read before the council.
In this letter, the ANC in Merafong tabled a motion of no confidence in the executive mayor for amongst other things, the way she handled the recent strike by temporary refuse workers. Even though Mogale-Letsie tried to protest, the move was accepted and she was immediately removed from her post.
Mr Mogomotsi Sello was appointed as mayor. He had been the MMC (member of the mayoral council) for infrastructure development till last week.
The council also replaced Ms Lerato Peu with Mr Siyamthemba Mdletshe as the acting municipal manager. Peu was the municipality’s executive director of urban development and planning, while Mdletshe was the executive director of infrastructure development.
Shortly after Peu was appointed as the acting MM, the chief opposition party in the council, the Democratic Alliance (DA), alleged that she is Mogale-Letsie’s niece. Neither Mogale-Letsie nor the ANC has made any official statement to deny the allegation.
The local ANC caucus decided to remove Mogale-Letsie the weekend before the council meeting.
The DA also said Mogale-Letsie’s removal had been illegal. “Instead of tabling a motion of no confidence and putting it on the agenda, the council speaker and ANC chief whip conspired and made an unannounced proposal for the mayor’s removal. The ANC council majority subsequently supported the move,” said DA Gauteng’s spokesperson for CoGTA, Mr Solly Msimanga. The DA says the change in mayorship will not affect the residents of Merafong.
Mogale-Letsie came into office after the 2011 municipal election and the ANC elected her as the mayor soon afterwards. She has been on thin ice since last year. In August, the ANC in Gauteng called for her to step down following her alleged failure to act against officials who invested municipal funds in VBS Mutual Bank. Shortly after the ANC Gauteng secretary, Jacob Khawe, announced his party’s decision to remove Mogale-Letsie, she appealed the decision.
Mogale-Letsie, a former social worker and municipal official was popular after taking the reigns from the previous mayor, Mr Papi Molokwane. Since then, however, the community and members of the ruling party have staged several protests to have her removed. The municipality was not forthcoming with a comment about the matter on Tuesday. Instead, it merely confirmed that Sello was now Merafong’s new mayor. On Tuesday, it emerged that one of the top officials – the executive director of corporate and shared services – Mr Hein Bredenkamp, is also leaving.
“Mr Bredenkamp will be retiring,” the municipal spokesperson said when asked about the matter.
