ANC’s push for removal of Tshwane speaker amid misconduct allegations fails

Tshwane council political parties were once again at loggerheads when speaker Dr Murunwa Makwarela was in the spotlight over allegations that he enjoyed council benefits to which he was not entitled, including VIP protection services a month prior to his election, allegedly approved by MMC for Community Safety.

These allegations were made by an outgoing metro council secretariat group head Tiyiselani Babane.

ANC councillors chanted “Makwarela you are out man”, as things got off to a heated start in the council chamber on Thursday.

Last week metro council secretariat group head Babane wrote a letter to Makwarela detailing allegations related to alleged misconduct that included the claims that Makwarela was granted VIP protection services a month prior his election approved by MMC for Community Safety, Grandi Theunissen.

Babane called for a probe into whether Theunissen had the authority to grant Makwarela protection services.  He recommended that Makwarela be investigated for using the VIP protection services when he was still a “part-time councillor” if this was contravening the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers Act.

In the letter Babane argued that Makwarela wanted the same privileges as the mayor.

The list of allegations also included claims Makwarela “demanded” TMPD protection at his residence.

Babane wrote that his own extended contract was supposed to end in April but he was served with a termination letter stating his last day was Thursday. He said he was not given a full l month’s notice and believed this was “illegal”. Babane asked for an investigation into whether Makwarela was behind his termination of contract.

Speaking to the Rekord, Makwarela said the allegations by the group head were “all lies, malicious, conniving and unfounded”.

“The agreement of the coalition that I take over as speaker was reached on December, 15, 2021. Before that I did not even know where the entrance of this [new] Tshwane House was,” Makwarela said.

“I mean, I didn’t even know what kind of protection the speaker had. It is all lies by a disgruntled employee whose contract is coming to an end who wants to tarnish my name.”

Makwarela said as soon as it was announced that Cope would take over the speaker position, Babane approached him regarding protection service matters.

Makwarela said he was interviewed by members of the protection service before his election to assess what kind of protection he had, something he said was not facilitated by him but by the community safety department.

Regarding wanting privileges equal to the mayor’s, Makwarela said he was “not stupid nor dumb” and did not want privileges outside his office.

He said Babane was “someone who is creating stories because he is disgruntled that I am not extending his contract and  this is a way of conniving and playing politics.

 “His [Babane’s] contract ended last year at the end of the term of the previous speaker. I was told there was a month-to-month extended contract for him [Babane] by the City manager and I was not involved in this. I am told that the City manager had given him one month’s notice to say his contract would end at the end of March.”

The debacle of the speaker’s office has been referred to the rules and ethics committee for further investigations.

ANC’s push for removal of Makwarela falls flat:

ANC caucus leader Frans Mokgokela Boshielo proposed at council that Makwarela be removed from his position pending investigations.

“We have come to the conclusion that the level of allegations against the speaker are serious and disturbing. In the previous council, one of the problems the city faced was political interference in administration. Our view is that you unduly benefited from council before being elected.”

The EFF did not want Makwarela to preside over the meeting.

The DA opposed calls for Makwarela’s removal, citing that the ANC did not follow the correct procedure for the removal of the speaker despite knowing of the allegations since last Thursday.

Sexual allegations claims:

Coalition chairperson and DA councillor Jacqui Uys said councillors had also flagged a sexual harassment complaint against Makwarela. In Babane’s letter, he wrote that he had been told Makwarela was suspended as a board chairperson member of the Joburg Market over allegations of sexual harassment of the former Market CEO. This allegedly happened before Makwarela joined the Tshwane  council.

Uys said although the coalition viewed the allegations in a serious light they also firmly believed the correct procedures needed to be followed to ensure a fair result. Should the investigation find the allegations to be true, “the coalition will act swiftly and decisively”, she said.

Makwarela said he was cleared of sexual harassment allegations in a probe under the two late Johannesburg municipality mayors, Jeff Makhubo and Jolidee Matongo. Makwarela served as a Joburg Market board chairperson from February 2021 before joining the Tshwane council.

“I will table the findings of that investigation to the Tshwane committee. The allegations were just baseless and made by someone who was due for suspension,” Makwarela said.

 Makwarela described the ANC’s call for his removal pending investigations as “political posturing” and said they were lobbied by Babane to fight against him.

“For him [Babane] to stoop so low and bring up corridor talks and make allegations is so disturbing,” Makwarela said.

After failing to remove Makwarela from presiding over the meeting, ANC chairperson Aaron Maluleke accused mayor Randall Williams of being a “pro-bono lawyer” for prohibiting Makwarela’s removal. Maluleke also threatened that the party would consider approaching the Public Protector to remove Makwarela from office.

After six hours of arguments and several caucus breaks, the political parties agreed that a special council meeting would be scheduled to deal with the matter.

Tensions among parties in the council have been developing over the past months. Just last week, the Tshwane Metro obtained a court interdict against an EFF march in support of a disgruntled former employees’ matter. Before then the ANC and EFF were unhappy about the coalition government turning down a R430 Million employees’ salary increase.

ALSO READ: Tshwane council turns down R430m salary increase, ANC and EFF unhappy

  WATCH : Tshwane council live stream

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