The ANC in Tshwane is adamant that a special council meeting will sit tomorrow to remove DA officials running the country’s capital.

On Tuesday, the ANC caucus announced that it had submitted a joint petition with the EFF to speaker Katlego Mathebe for her to call a special council meeting on January 8.

“In terms of section 29 [1] of the Municipal Structures Act, a majority of councillors can petition the speaker to call a special meeting to deal with council business and important matters in a set agenda. The speaker must then call that meeting, it is not her discretion but the meeting is mandatory,” said ANC regional chairperson Kgosi Maepa.

In the agenda, the two parties want to table motions of no confidence in Mathebe,  deputy speaker Zwelibanzi Khumalo, executive mayor Stevens Mokgalapa, chief whip of council Christo van den Heever, chair of chairs Gert Pretorius and dissolve all oversight committees.

Maepa said the ANC had given Mathebe until January 6 to respond to the petition and had already copied Gauteng cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Lebogang Maile and acting city manager Moeketsi Ntsimane. 

Mathebe is being accused of running a campaign against Mokgalapa. The opposition accuses Khumalo of holding a position which does not exist in law while Mokgalapa is accused of failing to stop Glad Africa corruption.

Maepa was still confident early Tuesday afternoon that the special council meeting would be held.

“We will receive the feedback from the speaker. The meeting is mandatory it is not discretionary…,” he said.

Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo confirmed that Mathebe had received the petition.

“The speaker is consulting these parties. The discussions are still under way,” Mashigo said.

The ANC and the EFF have been trying to remove DA officials in Tshwane for some time.

This move was intensified in November when Mokgalapa made headlines after an audio clip surfaced in which he could be heard allegedly having sex with the now former MMC Stella Senkubuge. During the 30-minute audio clip, the pair also engaged in talk about toppling some government officials.

At a dramatic council meeting on December 5, the ANC and EFF voted together to remove Mokgalapa and Mathebe. The councillors further rejected Khumalo from presiding over the meeting, arguing that “he was drunk”.

The EFF nominated its own councillor Obakeng Ramabodu as acting speaking and he was voted in.

However, the next day, the DA approached the high court in Pretoria on an urgent basis to have all the decisions taken during that council meeting suspended, pending its review application.

The court granted the DA its wishes.

Provincial government has over the past months been concerned with the political stability in the country’s capital. Maile even indicated the city could be placed under administration if it does not get its affairs in order.