Mayor faces a motion for a vote of no confidence
In the motion set forth in the agenda for the council meeting that was supposed to take place last week, the ANC calls for Cllr Mtshali to step down as mayor, and to resign from his position as Ward 18 councillor.
“HONOURABLE Cllr Mtshali’s appetite for Public Funds is too much. He is an embarrassment to Ratepayers of our municipality. He must do the honourable thing,” reads the ANC’s motion to pass a vote of confidence in mayor, Martin Mtshali.
In the motion set forth in the agenda for the council meeting that was supposed to take place last week, the ANC calls for Cllr Mtshali to step down as mayor, and to resign from his position as Ward 18 councillor.
However, only the ANC attended the meeting last week. Councillors from the IFP, DA and EFF were absent, after agreeing that the meeting needed to be postponed.
The vote of no confidence follows the mayor being found guilty by the Department of Education of mismanaging funds at Lindumthetho Primary School where he was principal.
The ANC said that it did not feel that a man found guilty of fraud should be running a municipality.
This matter was among those on the agenda for last week’s council meeting which had to be postponed, much to the ANC’s disfavour.
“An ordinary council meeting cannot be cancelled without a resolution from all councillors. The councillors were only sent SMSs on Monday afternoon informing them that the meeting would be postponed,” said ANC spokesperson, Zakes Buthelezi.
Despite having received this message, members of the ANC were at the council chambers on Thursday demanding to see the speaker, Michael Khumalo.
After waiting at the chamber for an hour, the ANC’s Chief Whip, Maria Mabaso, was sent to fetch the speaker.
The whip returned some time later without the speaker and informed her fellow comrades that the speaker said that nothing had changed. The meeting was still postponed due to an electrical fault that affected the printers, which had resulted in a failure to print a completed agenda.
The ANC, however, believed that this was just a ploy to drag things out as they felt that the other parties did not want to discuss the motion.
The IFP’s spokesperson, Jerry Sibiya, said the Mayor had not been a member of the IFP at the time when the money at Lindumthetho allegedly went missing.
“The IFP did not receive nor does it know anything about the said R400 000. The Mayor was not a member of the party during the time period indicated on the disciplinary hearing letter,” said Mr Sibiya.
According to Mr Sibiya, the IFP knew nothing about the fraud charges against the mayor prior to them being brought forward now.
“The mayor has brought his story forward to the party but I cannot go into the details at the moment as it is sub judice,” he said.
The spokesperson said that the IFP believes that anyone who is a member of the party qualifies to take up any prominent position and pointed out that these were among the things that were looked at when they agreed on having Cllr Mtshali take up the mayoral position.
On whether or not the mayor was still obtaining a salary from the Department of Education, Mr Sibiya said that departmental procedures take time and that the mayor could not be blamed for their delays.
“The mayor resigned from his position at the school. He might still be getting the money but it will probably be deducted from his package when the department has finalised his resignation, therefore we cannot really stick with the story of the mayor earning a double salary,” said Mr Sibiya.
The council meeting was postponed to Thursday, December 22, where all matters on the agenda, including the motion will be discussed.
