ANC Limpopo: Divided over dismissal of three councilors

The ANC is divided in Limpopo after the beleaguered Lephalale local council fired three ANC councillors for failing to attend meetings.

The councillors were fired during an ordinary council meeting on Friday. They are accused of contravening Section 4, schedule 7 of Local Governance Structures Act 117 of 1998 and the Code of Conduct for councillors.

Act

The Act stipulates that a councillor who fails to attend three or more consecutive meetings of a council or committee which that councillor is required to attend must be removed from office without delay.

The council on Friday took a decision to part ways with the three, claiming they had failed to show up for important meetings.

The three councillors are Joseph Machaba, Aaron Mokgehle and Emmanuel Magoai. Machaba is accused of attending only one portfolio committee meeting out of nine.

Mokgehle, who is the chair of the social services portfolio committee, is accused of never holding a meeting for his committee since becoming an executive committee member in October 2022.

Magoai is accused of not attending three municipal public account committee meetings consecutively. Since the inauguration of the fifth administration on 23 November, 2021, the Lephalale local municipality has had 16 council meetings.

Seven were ordinary meetings while nine were special council meetings, all chaired by the council speaker.

According to minutes presented to council by ANC chair of chairs during the meeting, Marcus Makgae, all members of the executive committee in council are chairs of portfolio committees, except for the mayor, who is the chair of the executive committee.

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Written warning

“It is written in black and white that all councillors who fail to attend meetings must submit a written application for leave of absence to the chair of the relevant committee before the start of the meeting,”

Makgae told the council. But the ANC in the region believed that firing the councillors was extreme and contentious. In light of this, the region demanded that the decision be reversed. Some in the ANC Waterberg region believed this was a pre-meditated ploy by a particular faction within the council with the sole aim of getting rid of those not speaking the same political language as them ANC Waterberg regional executive committee member and regional secretary Rufus Mahoro branded this an act of anarchy by those who continued to disregard directives from the ANC provincial and regional executive committee (REC).

“The ANC views this as an act of contempt against the decisions of the higher structures,” said Mahoro. He said the REC has dispatched members of the ANC regional working committee to provide possible solutions to the current stand-off.

“The REC will consult the provincial executive committee on appropriate consequence management measures to be taken against those hellbent to disregard the party line in pursuit of selfish interests,” he said.

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