The EFF has relinquished power and instructed its first mayor in Metsimaholo in the Free State to resign with immediate effect as the party rejected working with the ANC.
Party leader Julius Malema said the Red Berets, which have helped dislodge the governing party in key metros and other hung municipalities across the country, had ordered Selloane Motjeane to tender her resignation on Thursday.
“We had a meeting now with the mayor of Metsimaholo and councillors, and asked the mayor to resign with immediate effect because she became a mayor through the vote of the ANC. We don’t vote with the ANC. Anywhere when the ANC votes for us, we should not accept that,” Malema said at a briefing.
Of the 46 seats in the financially troubled municipality, the EFF and the DA control 12 seats each while the ANC has 16.
Malema said the party would be setting itself up for failure if it accepted the offer to lead the municipality at the mercy of the ANC.
“Our numbers don’t allow us to work the way we want to work there and in the absence of that agreement with the ANC, we are setting ourselves up for failure. Why should we allow ourselves to fail before we start? You can see that thing is going to fail because it is not based on anything but local dynamics and arrangements outside the national leadership’s guidance,” Malema said.
The ANC in Fezile Dabi told the Sowetan on Tuesday that it had initiated the deal with the EFF in a bid to ensure that it did not lose total control of the municipality, resulting in it getting key positions including the speaker post, MMCs and crucial committees in council.
While Malema insisted that the party rejected getting support from the ANC, he said the party had accepted the backing of an EFF speaker in Mamusa municipality by a divided ANC caucus as this hurt the ANC. “That speaker was elected by a faction in the ANC. That thing upset the ANC and it works for us,” he said.
The EFF was now planning to lobby the DA to back Motjeane as a mayoral candidate alongside other smaller parties in a bid to ensure the governing party did not get the top post.
Malema said: “We will persuade the DA to vote with us. If they don’t want to, we will vote with them and give them that municipality, as long as the municipality is not in the hands of the ANC.”
EFF orders their new Metsimaholo mayor to resign
Red Berets will not work with the ANC, Malema says
Image: Twitter
The EFF has relinquished power and instructed its first mayor in Metsimaholo in the Free State to resign with immediate effect as the party rejected working with the ANC.
Party leader Julius Malema said the Red Berets, which have helped dislodge the governing party in key metros and other hung municipalities across the country, had ordered Selloane Motjeane to tender her resignation on Thursday.
“We had a meeting now with the mayor of Metsimaholo and councillors, and asked the mayor to resign with immediate effect because she became a mayor through the vote of the ANC. We don’t vote with the ANC. Anywhere when the ANC votes for us, we should not accept that,” Malema said at a briefing.
Of the 46 seats in the financially troubled municipality, the EFF and the DA control 12 seats each while the ANC has 16.
Malema said the party would be setting itself up for failure if it accepted the offer to lead the municipality at the mercy of the ANC.
“Our numbers don’t allow us to work the way we want to work there and in the absence of that agreement with the ANC, we are setting ourselves up for failure. Why should we allow ourselves to fail before we start? You can see that thing is going to fail because it is not based on anything but local dynamics and arrangements outside the national leadership’s guidance,” Malema said.
The ANC in Fezile Dabi told the Sowetan on Tuesday that it had initiated the deal with the EFF in a bid to ensure that it did not lose total control of the municipality, resulting in it getting key positions including the speaker post, MMCs and crucial committees in council.
While Malema insisted that the party rejected getting support from the ANC, he said the party had accepted the backing of an EFF speaker in Mamusa municipality by a divided ANC caucus as this hurt the ANC. “That speaker was elected by a faction in the ANC. That thing upset the ANC and it works for us,” he said.
The EFF was now planning to lobby the DA to back Motjeane as a mayoral candidate alongside other smaller parties in a bid to ensure the governing party did not get the top post.
Malema said: “We will persuade the DA to vote with us. If they don’t want to, we will vote with them and give them that municipality, as long as the municipality is not in the hands of the ANC.”
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