ANC and EFF: ‘Paranoid’ Mashaba jumped the gun by discussing an untabled motion

Reacting to mayor Herman Mashaba’s statement earlier today that the ANC filed a motion of no confidence against him, set to take place during a council meeting scheduled for “26 and 27 September”, both the ANC and EFF have criticised the mayor for being expedient at the expense of council rules.

ANC Johannesburg council caucus leader Jolidee Matongo said Mashaba is guilty of contravening the rules, which state that a councillor can’t disclose a motion until it is processed by the programming committee.

“Our fight with Mashaba is that the deadline to submit motions was the 6^th of September, next week Tuesday, during the programming committee meeting, the motions, questions and all other agenda items are agreed on.

“Even before the motion is agreed on, Mashaba is all over the place talking about the motion. We are taking the mayor to the ethics committee, we will be writing a letter to the speaker asking him to refer the mayor to the ethics committee for disciplinary action to be taken against him,” Matongo said.

Musa Novela, the chief whip of the EFF in the council, refused to be drawn into whether his party would be present to debate the motion, and said: “There is no motion of no confidence which has been tabled. The whole thing is pure speculation, until such time it is submitted to the secretary to council and the programming committee.”

“Mashaba is being paranoid, you have to wait until it has been officially decided that the motion will be allowed on the agenda on the day. Mashaba and the ANC are welcome to say whatever they want to say, but as the mayor, you have to state facts when communicating to residents,” Novela added.

READ MORE: ANC files motion of no confidence against Mashaba

Matongo explained that the overarching rationale for his party’s decision to remove Mashaba from office was because “he [Mashaba] is failing to manage the city which is on the brink of financial collapse after just one year”.

When reminded that the mayor described this motion as a desperate act by the ANC, removed from power in August 2016, which was responsible for the current financial state of the city, as it ” institutionalised corruption”, Matongo said Mashaba must reserve his comments for the 28th, as he would have an opportunity to debate with the ANC.

With the EFF refusing to play open cards regarding whether it would boycott the sitting,  the DA has every reason to worry. The EFF has in recent times boycotted council sittings in metros where it voted in support of the DA during last local government elections due to disagreements. This resulted in the DA unable to take key decisions.

There are 270 seats in Johannesburg council chamber. The ANC has 121 seats, followed by the DA with 104, with the EFF holding 30 seats. IFP holds five seats, the AIC four, and Patrotric Alliance and Al Jammar one each. To remove the mayor, the official opposition party will require 136 votes.

Floyd Shivambu cautions the DA to stop undermining EFF, or else they would lose their municipal support

During this week’s failed motion to dissolve parliament, which only DA MPs voted in favour of, EFF’s Floyd Shivambu chastised the DA and reminded them no one gave the party the “mandate” to dissolve parliament.

He “officially” cautioned the DA not to self-destruct, something the party has long said was the ANC’s forte.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBexHb8EPj8

“We want to reject the motion that is placed here by the DA. We gave the DA the opportunity to lead August 8 process. We united society, we spoke to sensible members of the ANC. Majority of them … majority of the caucus of the ANC would have voted with us.

“If [only] the DA did not make basic tactical mistakes of grandstanding of wanting to gain glory, out of a collective national outcry about one individual who is destroying this country. The DA must not take advantage of the mercy that we have given them. They must not take the votes that we gave for them in the municipalities for granted.”

WATCH: EFF’s Floyd Shivambu warns the DA not to engage in self-destructive tendencies 

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