Dispute over Lephalale mayor goes on

Another planned council sitting to appoint a new municipal mayor for the beleaguered Lephalale local municipality in Limpopo has failed to take place.

The sitting scheduled for Friday, was to nominate and elect a new mayor.

The council has a total of 29 councillors but only a few turned up to this crucial sitting and did not form a quorum.

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The failed meeting was one of many which were planned before but failed due to political infighting. Yesterday, ANC subregional chair John Serakalala said the failure could only mean that councillors do not agree with the decision of the Limpopo ANC provincial structure on the appointment of a new mayor.

He said it was clear some councillors chose not to attend because they don’t agree with the PEC decision.

“The discontentment surrounding the appointment of the new mayor comes amid a dispute lodged by branches in the run-up to last year’s local government elections. Allegations were that the person the ANC PEC wants to be mayor was not nominated by branches,”said Serakalala.

He said branches also alleged the person had campaigned against the ANC in favour of an independent candidate ahead of the local government polls.

He added that because of that the ANC lost one ward to an independent candidate.

The brouhaha in Lephalale started after the ANC in Limpopo ordered the current mayor, Alpheus Thulare, to resign and for the council to appoint council member, Aaron Mokgehle as the new mayor.

This saw Queen Senoamadi branch and two ANC bigwigs, Thulare and Benny Ngoepe, take the PEC to the High Court in Pretoria to nulify Mokgehle’s appointment.

But the urgency of the application was set aside, making the order by the PEC stand. Last week the PEC ordered the council to appoint Mokgehle.

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