Tough luck for Zuma as Mogale City council to be dissolved

The happiness of President Jacob Zuma that Mogale City municipality was back in the hands of the ANC was short-lived – as it now faces its imminent end.

The municipality has essentially collapsed because its council has failed to adopt a budget twice since winning back the municipality from the DA through a vote of no confidence in mayor Michael Holenstein three weeks ago.

Councillors were 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 means that the municipality’s council will be dissolved and put under the administration of the province until new elections are held and a new leadership put in place.

The move is a blow to the ANC on a municipal level, as it was able to tip the scales in its favour after influencing an unidentified member of the opposition to vote with it during a secret ballot that resulted in Holenstein being booted out.

The ANC had lost Mogale City to a DA coalition with the EFF during last year’s local government elections. The Citizen was told that the “ANC’s fight for positions”, after taking back the municipality, was part of the reason that they could not consolidate support to pass the budget.

Ironically, this is the same budget put forward by the DA, which the ANC in council refused to support for several months.

“This was the opposition’s way of collapsing the municipality and ensuring that the ANC does not get another opportunity to take control of resources,” said a source in the municipality.

During his opening address at the ANC’s fifth policy conference, which ended last week, Zuma told the 4 000 delegates that, despite their having suffered massive defeats when the party lost three metropolitan municipalities, there was light at the end of the tunnel.

“The good news is that this week we managed to win Mogale City back as the ANC,” he boasted.