Thabazimbi municipality prepares representation as ANC mulls over its defiant councilors
THABAZIMBI mayor, Tokkie Swanepoel, has indicated that the municipality was drafting representation on the intention by the Limpopo provincial cabinet to place the entity under administration.
The municipality has until Friday to submit the representation against the provincial cabinet’s intended move which was informed mainly by the political instability negatively impacting on service delivery.
However, Swanepoel said the drafting of the representation was being made difficult by “ANC councillors who continue to stay away from meetings”.
She believe all the 23 councillors in the municipality had to sit together to draft the representation.
“I absolutely believe there are factions in the ANC. One faction indicated they want to work with me. The other has never given us a chance to work together,” she said.
She remained baffled by the apparent reluctance of the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) to take action against its councillors, especially on the defiance of the party’s directive to cease legal challenges to oust the DA-led coalition.
In defiance of the party directive, the ANC in Thabazimbi has approached the Constitutional Court after it failed in the Supreme Court of Appeal to overturn the order of the Polokwane High Court which reinstated Swanepoel as mayor in March this year.
On Monday, the ANC-EFF coalition again mounted a political move. The coalition held its own “council meeting” and “elected” ANC’s Judy Mohapi as mayor and EFF’s Orapeleng Selokela as speaker.
But Swanepoel described it as a means “to try to get into the municipality and loot money”.
ANC provincial spokesperson, Jimmy Machaka, said: “The ANC Limpopo will in due course meet and assess what is happening at Thabazimbi including the conduct of its own deployees.
“It is at this stage unknown what the party will do against deployees who defy the party. The PEC will make a decision on the subject matter in due course.”
Machaka also responded to assertion that ANC councillors were to blame for the instability at the municipality through their conduct such as boycotting meetings in which service delivery-related decisions were to be made.
“The ANC approach on the matter is that we require service delivery to the people of Thabazimbi at all times and it is also our expectation that deployees are required to attend all council meetings as and when invited. Where one misses such meetings, there should be a report to that effect,” he said.
He also said the party does not have a view on the intention to place the municipality under administration: “We shall only make our views public once a decision has been taken…” he said.
