Speaker of council of the Govan Mbeki Municipality, Fikile Magagamela, once again survived an attempt to oust her.
Freedom Front Plus councillor Aranda Buitendag-Nel brought a motion of no confidence against Magagamela in a council meeting on February 28.
According to the motion notice, the speaker has failed many times in her position as the speaker of council by making rulings on items over which she has no authority.
Magagamela allegedly made rulings when the council did not quorate, which is against the council standing orders.
“I raised concern over the ruling made by the speaker on an item last year, arguing that she cannot direct the council on how to conclude on the matter because we didn’t quorate and there was no council resolution.
“But she ruled on the matter anyway and did not allow further debate. Instead, she dictated to the council to move to the next item.
“The speaker is biased and she is not standing impartial in council as is required by the council standing orders. She also has favourite councillors which compromise council sittings,” said Buitendag-Nel.
She also alleged that Magagamela verbally abused the senior managers at the municipality.
Tension between Buitendag-Nel and Magagamela has been building since Buitendag-Nel opened a case at the police against the speaker in December. She claimed Magagamela threatened to kill her, but Magagamela allegedly replied that she had made a joke.
Magagamela took Tuesday’s motion to the vote when there were contradictory views on whether the motion should stand or not.
ANC councillors wanted the motion to fall away. Their 26 votes beat that of the DA, FF+ and ARP councillors who wanted the motion to stand while EFF abstained from voting.
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Magagamela previously escaped a motion of no confidence tabled against her at an ordinary council meeting held on March 31 last year.
The first motion for her removal was forwarded by the African Transformation Movement (ATM) and was supported by the DA, EFF, FF Plus, IFP and ARP councillors who were jointly in majority.
That motion was rejected by ANC councillors, while all opposition parties wanted the motion to stand as the standing item.
A lengthy debate began when a DA councillor proposed the speaker leave her chair because she could not preside over the motion for her removal as it was a conflict of interest and against the council’s standing orders.
Magagamela was, however, protected by ANC councillors who claimed the speaker should preside over her motion.
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They denied that the matter was contradictory to the standing orders. The ATM then later withdrew that motion.
The matter was taken to a vote to decide if the motion could remain as a standing item. The ANC lost to opposition parties by 26 to 33 votes.
The speaker then announced that the motion must be debated. Councillors were surprised by this ruling because they usually do not debate over matters on which they disagreed.
They merely go over to vote. Opposition parties then told the ANC to debate the motion within themselves.
Magagamela and Mayor Nhlakanipho Zuma also survived a motion of no confidence tabled by the Azanian Residents Party in a council meeting held on October 27 last year.
Again the councillors from the DA, ATM, IFP, and FF Plus supported the ARP’s motion while the EFF abstained from voting while the ANC rejected the motion.
The ANC also won by 23 votes while parties who supported the motion obtained 21 votes. The parties disputed the outcome.
