Chaos as North West municipality speaker escorted out of council

The speaker of the Moses Kotane local municipality was escorted roughly out of the council chamber by a group of bouncers on Monday as ANC factional infighting spilled over into the council sitting.

The council special sitting, which was illegal because it was not called by speaker Gugu Mtshali as required by law, was abruptly stopped following a heated exchange between members of the two factions – one led by mayor Nketu Nkotswe and another by Mtshali.

Although Mtshali was expected to call a meeting anyway on the day, she decided not to go ahead after the ANC Bojanala regional executive committee (REC) directed the ANC caucus not to proceed with both sittings as they were both unprocedural.

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Councillors go ahead anyway

The defiant councillors appointed councillor Maria Matshaba as acting speaker and chaired the meeting while Mtshali, who should chair it, was present.

The chaos erupted when Mtshali questioned the legality of the sitting, which was called by the municipal manager, Mokopane Letsoalo, without the speaker, who is authorised by law to call all council sittings.

Bouncers entered the chamber and took Mtshali out, along with some members of the public, who protested her alleged manhandling by the bouncers.

An ANC member, who did not want to be named, said the Nkotswe faction of councillors went ahead with the meeting in defiance of the ANC directive to postpone both sittings.

“All this chaos could have been avoided had these ANC councillors respected and honoured the REC decision to call off both sittings,” the member said.

“There is something wrong in this municipality… there is so much instability and maladministration at Moses Kotane.

“They must account where did they get the money to hire the bouncers, instead of using our municipal security, which is paid R2.3 million per month to secure the municipality.

“We don’t have water at Moses Kotane, but they are busy wasting money on bouncers.”

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Regional chairperson calls it ‘unacceptable behaviour’

ActionSA Bojanala West acting regional chair Paul Chirwa condemned what he called “unacceptable behaviour” by the councillors during the sitting.

“The situation escalated into a volatile and disturbing environment, particularly among councillors elected to serve the community of Moses Kotane,” he said.

“Such conduct is intolerable and immediate measures must be taken to uphold the integrity of the council and to ensure an adherence to the bylaws.”

Chirwa said ActionSA would escalate the matter to the MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs.

Attempts to get comment from Mtshali and Letsoalo yesterday were unsuccessful.