Pretoria News

Vacancies declared over vote-buying scandal

RAPULA MOATSHE rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za

THE Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has declared vacancies for City of Tshwane council after some were recently implicated in vote-buying claims.

City manager Johann Mettler on Monday said he had officially declared four vacancies by writing to the IEC Gauteng provincial office, informing them of the declaration of four vacancies for proportional representative (PR) councillors.

Two ActionSA councillors were at the centre of the collapse of last week’s special council sitting to elect a new mayor.

In a statement, City spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the declaration was made after Mettler had “considered all the developments which occurred during last week’s council”.

“The three vacancies are two for ActionSA and one for the Congress of the People (Cope),” Bokaba said.

Mettler announced the vacancies ahead of another special council sitting expected to be hosted today (Wednesday) at Tshwane House to elect a mayor.

The presence of ActionSA councillors Mandla Mhlana and Mpho Baloyi, and Cope councillor Justice Sefanyetso, became contentious during last week’s sitting to elect a mayor.

This was when councillors affiliated to the multiparty coalition bloc, which includes IFP, DA, ActionSA, FF-Plus and ACDP, questioned the councillors’ legitimacy in council after their respective parties recalled them.

Both Mhlana and Baloyi had their party memberships terminated for failing lie detector tests conducted by ActionSA to trace councillors suspected of having betrayed a mandate to vote for Cilliers Brink as Tshwane mayor on February 28.

The pair were fingered for having voted for former Cope councillor Makwarela as mayor.

Makwarela had since resigned under a cloud after he submitted a fraudulent insolvency rehabilitation certificate to Mettler to be reinstated as mayor, after he was disqualified as a councillor following the revelation that the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, declared him insolvent in 2016.

The two councillors’ presence during last week’s sitting was cited as the main reason for a walkout by multiparty coalition members on Friday.

Council Speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana refused to act on the vacancies.

On the other hand, Cope found out that the vetting processes revealed that Sefanyetso, who was submitted to the IEC list by the Tshwane region, was in possession of two IDs and also had a criminal record.

The fourth councillor, Nkele Molapo, was axed by ActionSA on March 13.

METRO

en-za

2023-03-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://pretorianews.pressreader.com/article/281603834709398

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