The Gauteng MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Lebogang Maile, is under fire for allegedly failing to intervene in the lack of a mayor and speaker in the West Rand District Council – more than a month after the national municipal elections.
The DA has increased pressure on him and accused him of double standards when dealing with chaotic scenes in formerly ANC controlled municipalities while allegedly threatening to disband those under the control of the DA.
Gauteng DA member of the legislature Evert du Plessis said Maile has been silent since parties represented at the District Municipality have for more than a month now failed to agree on party representation in the district.
The DA, Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and other parties have accused the Rand West Local Municipality’s speaker, Dumile Sithole, of having used underhanded methods to select councillors to serve in the District Council.
The parties accused the ANC and Sithole of being in a desperate attempt to retain power in the West Rand District Municipality. They claimed that the ANC held the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) officials ransom and obstructed them from doing the jobs. According to the Electoral Act, after a local municipality had elected its own speaker and mayor, including the chief whip, the role of the IEC was to facilitate the election of councillors to serve on the District Council based on their party’s votes in the municipality.
According to these parties, the IEC conducted a legal process on November 25 and several councillors were elected to serve in the District Municipality. The IEC results allowed the FF+ to appoint one councillor, the ANC three, the DA two and the EFF two.
Unhappy with the IEC results, Sithole allegedly organised another vote and its outcome allegedly gave the ANC five seats and EFF two.
Now, Du Plessis has accused Maile of silence after another meeting on December 17 failed to reach a consensus on the election of mayor and speaker.
“It has now become very clear that there is absolutely nothing honourable about how MEC Lebogang Maile fails to ensure that all municipalities in the province, particularly the District Municipalities, are run in an open and transparent manner,” Du Plessis said.
He said when the DA was still in the process of electing its members of the mayoral committees (MMCs) in the Gauteng metros, the MEC was very vocal on this issue, “but now that its own party that has failed to follow due process, he is mum on the matter”.
Reacting, Cogta spokesperson Lupi Ngcayisa said: “The MEC is fully aware of the dispute between the political parties represented in the Municipal Council of the Rand West City on the election of the Local Municipality’s representatives to the West Rand District Council.
“In fact, the speaker of Rand West City sought the MEC’s intervention on the matter. In the main, the speaker advised that there is disagreement in the manner in which the IEC interpreted and applied the applicable statutory provisions pertaining to the election of the council’s representatives to the West Rand District Council. The speaker consequently called upon the MEC to ’allow for a fair arbitration process wherein parties can raise their objections, have the mediated, and all settle on the basis of a fair resolution process’.”
Ngcayisa said the MEC, however, responded that he was statutorily unable to accede to such a request for the following reasons: “The MEC responsible for local government in a province is not endowed with statutory power(s) to act as an arbitrator or mediator to settle disputes pertaining to the interpretation and application of the applicable statutory provisions regarding the election of local municipal council representatives to district municipal councils. This is a matter that falls squarely within the purview of a competent court of law,” Ngcayisa said.
baldwin.ndaba@inl.co.za
Political Bureau