News24.com | ANC loses out on Mangaung mayoral position after expelled councillors support opposition coalition

• The ANC lost out on the Mangaung mayoral position.
• The former deputy mayor, who the party expelled last month, aided the opposition. 
• The IEC informed the ANC that the manner in which it had dismissed councillors was procedurally flawed. 

The ANC lost out on the Mangaung mayoral position after its former deputy mayor, Mapaseka Mothibi-Nkoane, aided the opposition coalition.  

Mothibi-Nkoane had been expelled by the ANC last month.

Mothibi-Nkoane's attendance, alongside fellow expelled ANC councillor Patrick Monyakoane, gave the DA-led coalition enough numbers to have the necessary quorum in the council. 

In total, 53 councillors from the 101-seat council were in attendance. 

The ANC's firing of the councillors came back to bite them after the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) challenged the procedurally flawed manner in which the party sought to fill the vacancies.  

In the end, the president of the Afrikan Alliance For Social Democrats, Papi Mokoena, was the biggest winner as he was elected as the new executive mayor of the troubled Mangaung Metro Municipality in the Free State.

He was elected unopposed after some ANC members, including the mayoral candidate, Gregory Nthatisi, boycotted the council sitting.  

The IEC on Friday informed the ANC that its decision to fire the councillors, and its attempt to fill some of the positions speedily, was done irregularly.

The ANC fired some of its councillors last month after they voted with the opposition in electing a DA speaker.

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Citing a failure to follow set protocol, the IEC questioned the ANC's attempt to fill the three Proportional Representation (PR) positions.  

In a letter seen by News24, the IEC clarified its role, the role of then the municipal manager, and the cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) MEC with regard to the applicable legislation on how political parties are to fill vacancies. 

The IEC said the ANC had communicated that it had expelled seven councillors, three being PR councillors and four ward councillors, who represented the ANC in Mangaung. According to the letter, two separate processes are, therefore, followed in filling the vacancies.

"Only an authorised representative may inform a municipal manager that a vacancy has arisen as contemplated in subsection (1)(c) and (f) of the Local Government Municipal Structures Act," reads the letter. 

The IEC added that the applicable legislation required that communication to the municipal manager was meant to be done within 14 days of the vacancy occurring. 

In a scenario, where there is no municipal manager, such as is the case in Mangaung, the Cogta MEC is empowered to inform the chief electoral officer of impugned PR vacancies within 14 days of the vacancy occurring.

It, therefore, indicated that the Cogta MEC, Ketso Makume, approaching the electoral officer and communicating the PR vacancies was, therefore, procedurally inaccurate.

The letter reads: 

"In the circumstances, albeit that the office of the municipal manager is currently vacant, the time period in Item 18(1)(b) must expire before your offices are empowered to inform the CEO of the impugned PR vacancies," read the letter.

With regards to filing the four positions created when the party fired its ward councillors, a by-election would have to be called after the municipal manager informed the MEC for local government and the IEC of a vacancy in a ward within 14 days from the date on which the vacancy occurs. 

The MEC, after consulting the IEC, must, by notice in the provincial gazette, call and set a date for the by-election, which must be held within 90 days of the date of the vacancy. 

As such, the DA said, given that the 14 days had not lapsed, Mothibi-Nkoane and Monyakoane could attend the proceedings.

The ANC, who had hoped to fill the three PR positions before the mayor's election on Friday, was now left with a dilemma.

While it enjoyed a slight majority, with 51 seats in the 101-seat council, with the seven fired councillors, the party now only had 44 seats and a trust deficit - because it wasn't entirely certain how many of its councillors voted with the DA. 

READ | The DA wants provincial help on the Mangaung mayor impasse. The Free State says it's busy right now

Seemingly fearing defeat, the party then chose to boycott Friday's election. 

A total of 53 councillors, including the Speaker, Maryke Davies, formed a quorum - and, according to Davies, this allowed the sitting to go ahead.

The DA's David Mosoeu was elected unopposed as chief whip.

In a media statement, the ANC's Free State spokesperson, Jabu Mbalula, said the ANC noted and welcomed the findings and orders of the Bloemfontein High Court, in response to an urgent court application that was lodged on Friday.

"Noting that the Mangaung Metro Municipality had a scheduled council meeting today, the ANC swiftly approached the court in anticipation of the appetite by expelled councillors to illegally participate in the said council sitting, that was scheduled for today, 14 April 2023 [and instantly] launched an urgent court interdict to prevent any participation of the said councillors who were expelled.

"The High Court in Bloemfontein agreed with us, and made the following orders today that the former ANC members are interdicted and restrained from in any way further acting as councillors of the Mangaung Metro Municipality," said Mbalula.

According to Mbalula, the councillors must also pay the costs of the above-mentioned application.