The motion was brought by the African National Congress (ANC) hours after Msimanga handed in his official letter of resignation.

The ANC’s chairperson in the region, Kgosi Maepa, says the party tabled the motion due to a delay by Msimanga in handing in the letter.

Council speaker Katlego Mathebe refused to entertain the motion, saying it would be futile as Msimanga will vacate his office in less than two weeks.

“Councillors, earlier in this meeting we received a resignation letter from the mayor, which was distributed to councillors notifying council of his resignation effective from 11 February 2019.

“The motion, in my opinion, has the same ultimate purpose as the resignation, that is that the mayor is vacating office on the date above so in the light therefore the motion is disallowed. It is also impractical because at the end of the day he is vacating office.”

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said it would prefer Msimanga to vacate his office immediately.

“We want to understand what makes the executive mayor want to stay for the next twelve days. Let’s speak about the service delivery because the work of the executive mayor is to give our people service delivery. With these twelve days what is that he is going to achieve? He has already wasted the last two weeks and he spent a lot of time in Alexandra,” said the EFF’s Obakeng Ramabodu.

The council sitting will continue through Thursday night, as members also needed to debate the suspension of municipal manager Moeketsi Mosola.

Mosola has been implicated in the Glad Africa corruption scandal.

OFM News