Tebogo Afrika will remain the mayor of Phokwane Municipality after a motion of no confidence in him was withdrawn this week.
TEBOGO Afrika will remain the mayor of Phokwane Municipality after a motion of no confidence was withdrawn against him this week.
The Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) and the Phokwane Service Delivery Forum (PSDF) submitted motions of no confidence in the mayor (Afrika) and the Speaker, Portia Selogilwe.
ANC councillor Willem Harmse was elected as the new Speaker during a council meeting on October 13.
Phokwane Municipality spokesperson Kgalalelo Letshabo said Harmse won by 11 votes against eight votes that were cast for Michael Castro Setlhogomi from the PSDF.
Setlhogomi, who is the PSDF party leader, said that Harmse received nine votes from the ANC and two votes from the DA, while he received five votes from the EFF and one vote each from the FF+, F4SD and the PSDF.
“The F4SD withdrew the motion after the ANC/DA coalition came through at the last minute, when the DA was promised the mayoral position and were allegedly bribed with sums of illicit money. The DA has betrayed opposition parties for the third time, where they chose to take sides with the ANC,” said Setlhogomi.
F4SD provincial convenor James Ntema stated that they had a prior arrangement with the DA to support their motion of no confidence in the mayor and the Speaker.
“The F4SD were forced to withdraw the motion on October 13. This is not the first time the DA pulled out of an arrangement at the last minute. The DA cannot be trusted and it clearly shows that they are in support of corruption by voting with the ANC.”
Ntema pointed out that the ANC removed Selogilwe as the Speaker through their motion and voted in another ANC councillor.
“Now we know where the DA stands. We are not discouraged after the DA sold us out. We had to withdraw our motion before the new mayor could be voted in to expose the dishonesty of the DA and ANC. Our mandate is to oust the ANC out of council and bring an end to this political prostitution. We will work with any political party that prioritises service delivery.”
DA provincial leader Harold McGluwa denied that they were “conniving” with the ANC.
“The DA is angered by the blatant lies peddled by the F4SD and PSDF, who claimed that the DA pulled out of an agreement at the 11th hour. They implied that we collaborated with the ANC and that our councillors accepted bribes for the mayorship. This is conveniently used as an excuse.”
He added that the DA had only met on a single occasion with minority political parties in Phokwane, excluding the EFF.
“At the meeting, it became clear that the PSDF was intent on securing the position of mayor. So much so that they contacted the EFF to seek permission, exposing their true colours and that, for them, it is all about positions.”
McGluwa indicated that nothing was concluded during the meeting, while discussions of a follow-up meeting never materialised.
“The DA has therefore not betrayed anyone. In fact, it is the forums that violated the trust on which our past interactions occurred.
“Shortly before the council meeting was due to start, I received frantic phone calls to try and persuade the DA to vote in support of a motion of no confidence by the F4SD against the ANC mayor.
“The DA will not be dictated to by any party. The DA stance is also very clear in that if there is no coalition agreement, we will not engage with proposals of minority parties.”
He said that they neither supported the ANC nor the EFF in council.
”We could not support the motion of the F4SD and PSDF in light of their obvious relationship with the EFF, as it will allow the EFF to grab power in Phokwane through the back door. The DA therefore abstained from participating in the council meeting.
“We remain dedicated to making coalitions work, where we have entered into formal coalition agreements. We also remain committed to working with other minority parties, where our values and vision for the country do not clash.”
McGluwa indicated that two DA councillors disregarded the party position and voted out of their own accord.
“The DA is internally investigating this matter as councillors are under a strict directive to abstain from any further voting that is not in the best interests of service delivery, which is motivated by parties wanting to clinch positions and that directly supports either the ANC or the EFF.
“We do not even have an exco position in council and the notion that we would make a deal for the mayoral position is therefore baseless.
“We remain devoted to remove the ANC from power and blocking the EFF from power.”