Pretoria – Cope has been left red-faced after one of its members, Dr Murunwa Makwarela, who had recently been elected as executive mayor of Tshwane was disqualified as a councillor after it emerged that he was declared insolvent by a court in 2016.
“We were caught by surprise when we were confronted by the media with news that our member who is a councillor in the Tshwane Metro Council was disqualified by the municipal manager because he was sequestrated some few years ago and that it is unlawful for any public representative to occupy such an office,” said Cope national spokesperson Dennis Bloem.
“Since its formation, the Congress of the People is a law abiding organisation that, at all times, defends the country's Constitution.”
Bloem said the Cope national leadership was not aware of Makwarela’s circumstances, even though there was a vetting process for candidates.
“As Cope national leadership, we were not aware of this serious violation of the law. In all fairness and honesty, during the filling in of the declaration forms to stand as a candidate to contest the election, Dr Makwarela did declare that he was sequestrated,” said Bloem.
“Our nomination process of becoming a public representative starts at constituency level. The constituency leader and the constituency secretary of elections submit it to the provincial leadership, where processing and vetting take place.
“Provincial leadership submits the candidate list electronically, after the submission of the lists, the national secretary for elections is informed and payment for registration of the lists is done by national office,” he said.
Bloem said the process of identifying candidates and finding out about their background was the responsibility of the Cope’s provincial leadership.
“We are extremely concerned about this matter, and we will leave no stone unturned before we know the truth. We are definitely going to investigate this matter to find out how was it possible for Dr Makwarela to slip through the vetting process,” said Bloem.
“We are equally concerned that Dr Makwarela has been a councillor and speaker since November 2021 without any questions raised. Somebody must answer these questions.”
Earlier this week, “Pretoria News” reported that Makwarela vowed that he was not backing down and planned to immediately approach the North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, seeking to interdict the announcement of his sudden exit made by city manager Johann Mettler.
“We are interdicting it. The city manager is trying to cover himself,” he said.
He said the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) process which saw him ushered in as Cope’s sole councillor in Tshwane was properly followed.
“Our lawyers had written to him that the process was properly followed but he didn’t consider that,” Makwarela said.
Mettler announced that he had written to the IEC's Gauteng provincial officer, informing him of a casual vacancy after Makwarela’s disqualification as a Cope proportional representative (PR) councillor.
Makwarela was catapulted into the mayor’s position on February 28, 2023, after he surprisingly broke ranks with multiparty coalition partners and sided with the ANC and EFF who backed him for the position.
The coalition partners, which included Cope, the DA, ActionSA, Freedom Front Plus, ACDP and IFP agreed to elect former DA MP Cilliers Brink as a mayor.
They were, however, shocked when Makwarela accepted a nomination for mayor. He got 112 votes while Brink received 101.
IOL