Masoetsa became the acting Mayor when Olly Mlamleli was ousted in a council sitting over a year ago. 

Mlamleli was not present at Friday’s ceremony, nor was the Free State Premier, Sisi Ntombela.  

In his speech, Masoetsa pledged his support to Siyonzana and reminded those present that as much as political leaders change, the core of the municipality remains the same and rendering services to residents of Mangaung in Bloemfontein, Thaba’ Nchu, Botshabelo, Dewetsdorp, Wepener and Soutpan remains a priority to all employees of the metro. Mlamleli’s former deputy echoed the sentiments of many speakers in the room, who heralded Siyonzana’s appointment as a new dawn for the embattled province.

Masoetsa says the Mangaung Metro is experiencing a change of guard and sees the inauguration as the beginning of hard work for Siyonzana and company.

Siyonzana was elected on 16 August, receiving 57 votes, edging out the DA's Hardie Vivier, who received over 20 votes. There were 5 spoiled votes, with 87 votes cast. Mapaseka Mothibi-Nkoane now replaces Siyonzana as the Speaker of the embattled council.  

ALSO READ: New Mangaung mayor to be inaugurated

One of Siyonzana’s critics - the former spokesperson for the disgruntled ANC members who took the former ANC Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) to the High Court over its constitutionality, Monnapula Ntamo, told OFM News the selection of Siyonzana by the interim provincial committee (IPC) makes it appear as if the committee led by Mxolisi Dukwana is not interested in resolving what went wrong in the province.

Ntamo said that the election of Siyonzana as Mayor is a step backwards and it fails to take into account the damage inflicted on the metro with him previously present in the upper echelons of the metro. Ntamo said Siyonzana is not the answer to the troubles besieging the metro, given that he is part of the history that still haunts the metro, even to date.

“What difference will he (Siyonzana) make? We must also hasten to say we know it’s only for the duration left for us to go to local government elections but what difference will that man bring into this municipality? So we are not really satisfied that the IPC, so to advise that Siyonzana must lead this metro... it’s against that background that we see that his nomination is completely unacceptable,” he adds.

Siyonzana has maintained that he did try to intervene when the situation in Mangaung went awry. Telling media that while he was still Speaker, he on previous occasions wrote letters to the executive council and ANC to try and address issues of non-compliance, especially with regard to legislative policies.

Siyonzana says at some point he was stopped when he wanted to address the issue of bulk borrowing by the metro, which then made at least five loans, borrowing millions from Absa and Standard Bank, amongst others.

“The previous council had five loans - two from Standard Bank, one from Absa, and two from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). They wanted to borrow R5 billion and I was very critical of that. And if you listen, people out there are saying just before this council, Mangaung had R3 billion in reserves, which is not true,” he adds.

OFM News