ANC ‘deliberately collapsed Tshwane Council’, ‘misinformed public’

The fate of the Tshwane’s acting city manager, James Murphy, will only be known next week.

A special sitting of the Tshwane Council took place on Tuesday behind closed doors regarding Mayor Stevens Mokgalapa’s request to reverse the appointment of Murphy.

Mayoral spokesperson Omogolo Taunyane said that “there was no positive outcome [at the sitting]… we are going to present all the reports that we intended to next week at the next council sitting”.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Taunyane lambasted the ANC’s conduct in the matter.

“It is deeply concerning that the ANC would grossly misinform the public in the manner it has done.

“To posit the truth only, it is the ANC that deliberately collapsed council yesterday,” she said.

“They impeded the implementation of the Auditor General [AG] report recommendations as a consequence management measure against Mr James Murphy.”

Taunyane said that implementing the AG’s recommendations would “tremendously” improve service delivery in the city.

“Failure to implement them undermines constitutional bodies, such as the Auditor General, and good governance.

“Instead of being a responsible opposition by placing the interest of residents first and supporting council’s efforts to stabilise the City, the disgruntled ANC resorted to every trick in the book,” Taunyane said.

On Tuesday, News24 reported that the ANC believed Mokgalapa’s efforts to reverse the appointment of Murphy was an attempt to have Moeketsi Mosola regain control.

“At the heart of the intention to rescind the appointment of Mr James Murphy as an acting city manager is the ‘big elephant’ Dr Moeketsi Mosola to continue with his ‘corruption patronage systems’, and the black DA caucus is largely in that mix,” the ANC said in a statement.

Last month, embattled former city manager Moeketsi Mosola’s contract ended abruptly when the City announced they would be parting ways.

Mosola was meant to vacate his office at the end of July, however, the mayor’s office announced that he had been granted special leave pending the finalisation of a separation agreement, and would remain in office until the end of August.

Mosola was at the centre of the controversial 2017 GladAfrica tender which cost the City millions. The tender was found to be irregular by the AG and was subsequently cancelled.

As a result, attempts to suspend Mosola following this, failed.

It was alleged that the City and Mosola had agreed to pay out the remainder of Mosola’s contract, which was R7 million.

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