The portfolio committee chairperson, Aaron Motswana, has further accused Mokgoro of misleading the public and the parliament.

The scathing attack on Mokgoro follows after he announced that the Executive Committee (Exco) in the province agreed and took a resolution to put the cash-strapped Mamusa Local municipality under administration and further dissolved its council last week. Motswana says it is wrong for Mokgoro to mislead the public and Parliament that the Exco informed the relevant Portfolio Committee about the move as required by legislation. He accused Mokgoro of incorrectly giving an impression that the committee agreed with the report of the MEC and minister of Cooperative Governance (Cogta), Mothibedi Kegakilwe, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) concerning this.

Meanwhile, Mokgoro’s office has denied the allegations and described them as baseless. His spokesperson, Vuyisile Ngesi, says the criticism by Motswana is incorrect on all levels and shows the lack of understating of the process undertaken by the office of the premier.

Motswana says Mokgoro's statement released on October 24 was filled with inaccuracies. He adds that the statement did not only mislead but showed signs of the continuation of undermining Parliament by Mokgoro. Motswana further accused the premier of missing an opportunity to brief the joint committee on Legislative Review, Houses Resolution, and Coghsta on October 22 and 25. "The Portfolio Committees has since its engagement with the department raised its rejection on the haphazardly and unlawful manner in which Section 139's are applied in the North West municipalities and that view has not changed at any given stage."

"Amongst the committee's concerns were a failure by the Department of Cooperative Governance to screen and vet administrators sent to municipalities and repositioning of individuals who failed to perform in their previous area of employment,” he adds. "That is why in four municipalities individuals with serious criminal records were seconded in violation of the Municipal System Act and Municipal Finance Management Act."

"The Portfolio Committee is consistent in its view that Section 139 has not yielded positive results in the past fourteen years and doubt if the current method will produce any positive outcomes given the continued resistance and absence of evidence of support given to municipalities in terms of Section 154 of the Constitution. The committee further rejected the use of Section 139 as a tool to settle political scores and a deployment tool of preferred individuals without following due process," Motswana further adds. Motswana further says the committee will refer this conduct to the office of the Speaker and Ethics committee.

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