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ANC may approach the court to reverse the election of Papi Mokoena as Mangaung executive mayor.
The ANC in the Free State is considering approaching the Bloemfontein High Court on an urgent basis to challenge the election of Papi Mokoena as the new mayor of Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality.
Mokoena was elected unopposed on Friday after the ANC decided to boycott the special council sitting.
DA councillor David Mosoeu was also elected unopposed as chief whip.
Despite the party snubbing the sitting, its seven expelled members attended it, which gave the council the numbers needed to form a quorum so that it could proceed with the elections.
Mokoena, who is the leader of Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats, was elected for the second time, having served the city prior to his arrest on various charges in 2005.
Ironically, it was Mokoena’s party that sponsored a motion of no confidence against ANC councillor Mxolisi Siyonzana.
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Mokoena was taken into custody after being accused of corruption, fraud, racketeering, theft and money laundering. He was acquitted in 2012. At the time of his arrest, he was deposed from his ANC positions as mayor, chairperson of the Motheo regional executive committee on economic transformation and member of the Motheo regional working committee.
His party got two seats in the council in the 2021 local government election.
Apart from boycotting the council sitting on Friday, the ANC also attempted to obtain a last-minute court interdict to prevent its expelled councillors from participating in the process to elect the mayor.
This was granted but went unheeded at the sitting.
City Press has learnt that the party has now instructed its lawyers to challenge the legality of the sitting, arguing that the seven expelled councillors were unauthorised to represent it in the council.
Insiders say the ANC is arguing that the seven should have been regarded as independent candidates who had no mandates and should not have attended the sitting on the ANC ticket.
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The seven individuals, who include three proportional representation (PR) councillors and four ward councillors, were among the 53 council members who had elected the mayor and the chief whip.
ANC regional spokesperson Ncamile Nxangisa said:
We know the sheriff handed over the interdict to the speaker, but – to our surprise – she still allowed everyone to participate. We’re therefore of the view that, in the absence of the seven councillors – who shouldn’t have been there – the sitting wouldn’t have been quorate.
He said the Free State ANC wanted the court to set aside the election of the mayor and the chief whip, and declare the council sitting null and void.
Nxangisa added that after yesterday’s developments, the party had opened criminal cases against the seven because their participation in the council sitting was allegedly in contempt of court.
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City Press understands that the seven councillors have filed a motion to oppose the interdict. The hearing is set for tomorrow in the Bloemfontein High Court.
In a letter sent to the ANC on Friday, they wrote that they were challenging the way in which the party had obtained the interdict.
“We will comprehensively deal with the manner in which you obtained this court order, given the history of this matter and especially the correspondence from our offices in this regard,” read the letter in part.
In the midst of this dispute, the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) issued a letter clarifying the position of municipal manager that the ANC was trying to fill.
This came after Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements MEC Ketso Makume wrote to the electoral body to inform it of the vacant positions left by the expelled members. However, the IEC noted that the erstwhile acting municipal manager’s secondment had been withdrawn on April 1.
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“As such, the position of municipal manager is currently vacant. The commission is of the view that it would be prudent to dispatch this correspondence to reaffirm the functions and roles played by the commission, the offices of the municipal manager and the [cooperative governance, traditional affairs and human settlements] MEC in accordance with the applicable legislation,” read the IEC’s letter.
The commission further stated that when a councillor ceased to be a member of the political party they represented – either as a PR or ward councillor – they also ceased to hold office as such, so a vacancy was created in terms of the law.
“When seeking to fill these vacancies, the Structures Act prescribes different processes, depending on whether a vacancy is PR- or ward-related,” it wrote.
The IEC stated that the ANC had not followed the correct protocol in declaring the vacancies.
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“The municipal manager is the lawfully authorised person to declare a PR vacancy and he/she must do so within 14 days after the councillor has ceased to hold office. It is only in the event of the municipal manager failing to declare a vacancy on or before the expiry of the 14-day period that the relevant MEC for local government may assume this function, in accordance with item 18(1)(c) of schedule 1 of the Structures Act,” read the commission’s letter.
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