Scores of MCC members, aligned to the shutdown movement, surprised the newly elected mayor, Mxolisi Siyonzana, on the golf course on Friday morning after he failed to fulfil his promise to meet them on Thursday. 

OFM News understands that security had to be called to protect Siyonzana. Municipal spokesperson, Qondile Khedama, says the incident was both unfortunate and regrettable. 

Scores of irate MCC members on Friday allegedly descended at a Bloemfontein golf course and demanded that Siyonzana should address their demands made earlier on. Khedama says the metro hopes the incident did not hamper the progress made between the two parties and that engagements will continue in a bid to find an amicable solution.

“We want to make an appeal that we look at different approaches in terms of our engagement with the MCC. There’s been reasonable progress between the city and the MCC and I want to believe that the incident did not necessarily hamper the progress that we have made in terms of our interaction and what is supposed to happen,” he adds.

The golf course incident comes after Siyonzana had failed to meet with the group on Thursday, as envisaged in the communique between the two parties.

Meanwhile, representing the group, Motlatsi Mokgatla tells OFM News that they had different reports about Siyonzana’s whereabouts on the day they were set to meet to further deliberate on their demands. The MCC had earlier demanded that Siyonzana fire the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Transport, Patrick Monyakoane, whom they accuse of interference. 

Mokgatla says Monyakoane has been pushing for the establishment of the new Mangaung Metro Police Department (MMPD), despite financial and service delivery woes faced by the metro. “This man, Siyonzana, who has been on a trial of wanting to be accepted as the mayor - we wrote him a letter and made demands that, among others, he fires the MMC who always interfere with the metro’s administration, among others, the establishment of the MMPD. So, we said 'look it can’t be a priority to establish the metro police when you have a demand of service delivery issues at the grassroots level' and even the procedure is marred with many irregularities. We want him to put aside this MMC from interfering and instead of the mayor answering to us, he then replied saying he cannot do that because that’s beyond him as the person who was deployed by his political party,” Mokgatla adds.

OFM News