ANC prepare for special meeting to oust Mokgalapa despite speaker’s ‘no’

The ANC and the EFF in Tshwane are preparing for a special council meeting on Wednesday at 6pm to possibly remove the DA from governing the Tshwane metro.

ANC Tshwane chairperson Kgosi Maepa reportedly said the acting city manager would preside over the special council sitting after the speaker suspected foul play in an initial petition filed by the ANC and EFF requesting a special council sitting on Wednesday morning.

This comes after speaker Katlego Mathebe cancelled the meeting which was scheduled for 10am, on Wednesday morning citing the possible “forging” of signatures.

Mathebe declined an urgent request by the ANC and EFF to hold a council meeting that would have seen Tshwane mayor Stevens Mokgalapa ousted as mayor.

In a statement on Wednesday, the speaker said she would investigate if councillors did not contravene the Councillors Code of Conduct after she allegedly found seven signatures in the ANC caucus document that did not match the signatures in the files of the council meeting’s attendance registers.

“The same document also looks like a copy and paste of the signatures that were submitted to support the request of the meeting of the 5 December 2019. Both these issues render the ANC document improper legally. The EFF document has only 25 signatures which do not satisfy the requirements of Section 29(1) Local Government: Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998. Therefore she resolved that she cannot legally convene the Special Council Meeting as per the request of the ANC and the EFF.”

At a briefing on Wednesday morning, Maepa called the DA “trash” for suggesting that the ANC forged their own signatures.

He said the ANC wanted the municipal manager to preside over a special sitting for 5pm on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the DA in a statement noted the allegations of misconduct and said an investigation by the speaker revealed that some of the signatures were allegedly forged.

“The Speaker will institute a thorough forensic investigation in this regard.

“It is clear that in the midst of an ongoing court battle in Tshwane to uphold and fight for the protection of our democracy and the rule of law, the ANC will stop at nothing to flex their political muscles to obtain power through the back door.

“The DA will write to Gauteng Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC, Lebogang Maile and call for the suspension of those councillors involved in this fraudulant act to be dealt with urgently.

Furthermore, the DA will lay criminal charges against the fraudulent councillors.”

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