EFF supporters protest outside Mogale City Local Municipality, West of Johannesburg, 28 January 2013, about the level of corruption taking place in Mogale City. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
In a statement on Tuesday, EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said that disciplinary steps would be taken against its councillors in Mogale City, West Rand, who had allegedly betrayed the party by voting with the “corrupt” ANC.
The DA staged a walkout but that was not enough to stop the budget from being accepted.
He said that EFF councillors had voted with the ANC on the budget and this was “the highest form of defiance of the revolutionary tenets of the Economic Freedom Fighters”.
He said that by siding with the ANC they had broken a cardinal rule and put the “people’s money in the hands of the African National Criminals who do nothing but steal”.
“These fighters went against resolutions of the EFF, rendering the non-negotiable cardinal pillar on anticorruption futile.
“Therefore by voting for the ANC, they have become complicit in normalising corruption and criminality. The EFF awaiting a formal report upon which it will institute disciplinary proceedings against them.
“It is the pending resolution of the Central Command Team of the EFF that from Parliament, Legislature, Metros and Municipalities we must never vote with the ANC. The ANC steals the money of the people and has been doing so for the past 23 years.
“Our immediate tactical duty is to unite with all opposition to remove this parasitic and kleptocratic regime of ANC kleptomaniacs.”
It had widely been expected that the current municipal council would be dissolved as it had twice failed to adopt a budget since the ANC won back the municipality from the DA through a vote of no confidence in mayor Michael Holenstein three weeks ago.
Business Day reported that the EFF supported the budget tabled on Tuesday by ANC mayor Patrick Lipudi.
They quoted the EFF’s Smanga Mkhumbeni as saying the ANC had incorporated its issues and it “cannot reject a budget that incorporates our submissions”. He reportedly said the EFF could not “reject a budget that betters our people’s lives”.
Councillors had previously been unable to adopt the municipality’s budget for the second time late last week after a few members of the opposition failed to attend the meeting, making it impossible to have the numbers to pass the budget. This meant that the municipality’s council was likely to be dissolved and put under the administration of the province until by-elections could be held and a new leadership put in place.
The ANC had lost Mogale City to a DA coalition with the EFF, Freedom Front Plus and the IFP after last year’s local government elections. The Citizen was told that the “ANC’s fight for positions” after taking back the municipality, was initially part of the reason that they could not consolidate support to pass the budget.
Ironically, this was the same budget put forward by the DA, which the ANC in council had refused to support for several months.
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