Pretoria - The DA has slammed the presence of Joburg council Speaker Colleen Makhubele in the City of Tshwane council on Wednesday while she was supposed to be presiding over a council sitting in her metro.
Makhubele, also a Cope councillor in Joburg, was asked by her Tshwane counterpart, Speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana, to come and clarify issues regarding the validity of two letters concerning the withdrawal of her party’s Tshwane councillor, Justice Sefanyetso.
Sefanyetso was introduced as a replacement for former mayor Dr Murunwa Makwarela, who resigned under a cloud for allegedly faking an insolvency certificate.
The two letters came under scrutiny after it emerged that each bore a different signature; the one by Makhubele and another by Cope president Mosioua Lekota.
This prompted questions about who possessed the authority in Cope to remove Sefanyetso.
A faction believed to be aligned to Cope deputy president Willie Madisha vowed to go to court to challenge Sefanyetso’s removal after he was accused of possessing two IDs and having a criminal record.
Ndzwanana decided to seek legal advice on the letters after he had consulted with Makhubele.
In reaction to Makhubele’s attendance at the Tshwane council, DA Joburg caucus leader Dr Mpho Phalatse said that it was tantamount to the dereliction of her council duty.
She added that Makhubele was expected to preside over a council sitting in the City of Joburg hosted on the same day, but she instead chose to attend to her party's political issues in Tshwane.
Phalatse said Makhubele’s presence in Tshwane meant she “put the politics of her party’s collaboration with the ANC-EFF coalition of corruption above the people of Johannesburg”.
The sitting in Tshwane was expected to elect a mayor, but that never materialised after Ndzwanana adjourned the meeting until further notice.
Yesterday, he announced that another special council sitting would be convened on Tuesday.
Phalatse said: “As speaker, councillor Makhubele carries a constitutional and democratic obligation to, more than any other elected official in the city council, disengage from opportunistic and petty party politics.”
She accused Makhubele of deserting her council duties to assist the ANC-EFF “as it sought to undermine the governance of the City of Tshwane (in) simply yet another instance of councillor Makhubele illustrating her tragic lack of understanding of her own office”.
“This is a speaker unable to achieve the impartiality her office requires and who engages in political attacks on those sitting in the council over which she presides. But it is a new low even by the standards of this speaker, to so shamelessly put the party politics of another city council above her obligations to the council she is supposed to be a servant of,” Phalatse said.
She thanked councillor Lloyd Phillips, who was the chair of chairs, for the “impartial and productive manner” in which he presided over the Joburg council sitting on Wednesday.
In a tweet, Makhubele said she was called to resolve the Cope issues in Tshwane and that ActionSA’s Michael Beaumont and co were “so terrified by her appearance”.
“When duty calls … you get out there and respond like a big girl,” she said.
She added that she was “going back to sleep after the letter of our councillor is sorted”.
This was her reaction to Beaumont’s tweet in which he said: “Joburg speaker gave her apology today (Wednesday) from a council meeting she should be chairing in Joburg. Instead, she is spending the day in Tshwane to assist the ANC/EFF to take over Tshwane with help of Cope's chaos.
“ActionSA must investigate this abuse of office.”
Pretoria News