Mangaung mayor drags executives to court

Central SA

─── LUCKY NKUYANE 12:16 Fri, 15 Apr 2022

Bloemfontein’s Mangaung Metro Executive Mayor has dragged the Acting City Manager (ACM) and others, including the speaker, to court.

This, as trouble continues to brew at the municipality.

Mayor Mxolisi Siyonzana wants the court give an order interdicting Mzingisi Nkungwana from executing any of the powers of the office or even setting foot inside the premises.

Siyonzana's urgent application to the Free State High Court comes after council allegedly voted to extend Nkungwana's fixed term contract.

The application was done on the eve of President Cyril Ramaphosa's Presidential Imbizo in Managung last weekend, when at least 24 ministers had visited the province to assess and inspect the state of affairs of municipalities.

Opposition parties recently roasted the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Mxolisi Dukwana over the department's interventions across embattled municipalities in the province.

MEC Dukwana, during the debate of his 2022/23 budget speech, was accused of interfering in the business of municipalities, in particular, the cash-strapped Mangaung Metro in Bloemfontein.

The Metro was recently put under administration by the national government, after years of failed financial recovery plans.

The Metro was stripped of its executive powers by the National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) and placed under National Government's control in terms of Section 139 (7) of the Constitution.

The National Council of Provinces’ (NCOP) permanent delegate from the Free State, Itumeleng Ntsube, said the current situation at the Metro is due to people longing for power.

He said the political factions and infighting have been identified as factors derailing the Metro.

Ppposition parties at the Metro Municipality have blamed the ANC’s political infighting for the trouble besieging the ailing metro.

But the ANC’s Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) spokesperson, Oupa Khoabane, told OFM News that the “municipality has been experiencing the challenges of cooperative governance for some time, which emanated from political conflicts that befell the institution”.

OFM News