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Table motion of no confidence against mayor or face legal action - warns DA

Patricia Kopane of the Democratic Alliance. The DA in Mangaung says it has given the speaker of the Mangaung Municipality seven days to table a motion of no confidence against mayor Olly Mlamleli.
Patricia Kopane of the Democratic Alliance. The DA in Mangaung says it has given the speaker of the Mangaung Municipality seven days to table a motion of no confidence against mayor Olly Mlamleli.
Image: Gallo Images / Sowetan / Peter Mogaki

The Democratic Alliance in Mangaung has given speaker Mxolisi Siyonzana seven working days to convene a special council meeting to debate and vote on its motion of no confidence against mayor Olly Mlamleli.

The party said that if Siyonzana failed to table the notice, he must be prepared to face legal action to compel him to do his job.

The DA had filed a notice of motion of no confidence in the mayor on May 27, following a plethora of problems affecting the municipality.

The party said Siyonzana had claimed in June that he was unsure whether he could place the motion before the council, because, in his assessment, the motion was too vague about why the council should express a vote of no confidence in Mlamleli.

DA Free State leader Patricia Kopane said residents of Mangaung had borne the brunt of the serious maladministration and poor governance of Mlamleli since the 2016 local government elections.

She said the rate of revenue collection stood at less than 60%, while budgets of the metro routinely assumed a collection rate of at least 90%.

The party said for the past two years, the municipality had paid R61m to a company that had failed to help the municipality improve collection rates, as per the contract.

Kopane said government departments and other state institutions were some of the major defaulters, including the Free State legislature which admitted to owing Mangaung R325m for municipal services and property rates.

The party claimed there were apparently more than 400 people employed in the office of the mayor alone without clear job descriptions,

It said there were non-stop sewage spillages everywhere in Mangaung and in the past 15 months, people did not have water for 41 days.

"I have this afternoon, at the sitting of council, handed a formal letter to Mr Siyonzana in which I have given him seven working days to convene a special meeting of council to debate and vote on our motion of no confidence, or he must be prepared to possibly face a court application to compel him to do his job," DA Mangaung caucus leader Hardie Viviers said.

Kopane said while the DA  did not prefer to take the legal route, the actions of the governing African National Congress left the party with no other option..

"Simultaneously, we will again write to both the minister of cooperative governance, the MEC for cooperative governance and National Treasury to demand, on behalf of the residents of Mangaung, that the administration of the metro be taken away from the city manager and placed in the hands of an administrator who must be willing and able to put the necessary measures in place to turn this ship around," Kopane said.


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