DA Councillor, Mokgadi Kganakga, urges residents to attend the important council sitting on Tuesday, to see how they are being represented by their respective ward councillors. It is Kganakga who got the ball rolling in tabling the party’s latest motion of no confidence, handing in her request via a letter to Council Speaker, Mxolisi Siyonzana, in late February. Addressing media on Monday, Kganakga shared the party’s wishes to protect councillors’ voting rights by carrying the vote out on a secret ballot.

The DA Councillors are convinced divisions are rife within the ANC and the Mayoral Committee with regards to Mlamleli’s leadership. They are optimistic that should the vote be carried out on a secret ballot, there is a high probability that the only metro in the country to be placed under administration could have a new Mayor, come Wednesday morning. The DA’s Mangaung Caucus has handed in a letter, dated 7 March, to that effect.

Kganakga is adamant Mlamleli must take responsibility and accountability for the state the metro finds itself in.

Mangaung’s lofty dreams to attract foreign investment were dashed in 2019 as credit rating’s agency, Moody’s, downgraded the metro twice within a single calendar year due to the metro’s weak and declining liquidity position which they said results in the metro not being able to fulfil its obligations to creditors, employees and residents.

The metro’s ailing financial status has been evidenced by the metro’s failure to render basic services at times, the souring debt to Eskom and Bloem Water amounting to about R300 million and R780 million respectively, as well as the recent closure of the Bloemfontein Zoo and removal of the animals by the Department of Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (Destea), alongside the SPCA, due to non-compliance last week Friday. In late January, employees received their salaries late, another reflection of financial strain.

The metro has in the past revealed it’s owed a significant amount of money by the provincial Public Works Department for services rendered. In fact around the same time the metro failed to pay salaries in time, the department was instructed to pay R30 million owed to Mangaung for services.

This was confirmed at the time by the spokesperson for the provincial Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) department, Zolile Lobe. Mangaung Metro, which includes the Free State capital Bloemfontein, is home to several provincial government departments. The maintenance and servicing of these provincial government buildings fall within the ambit of the Public Works Department’s responsibilities. It is this department that must pay the metro for services rendered.

DA Mangaung Caucus leader, Hardie Viviers, sees the removal of Mlamleli as the beginning of a new chapter for the municipality.

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