COPE councillor Murunwa Makwarela has been reinstated as Tshwane executive mayor after city manager Johann Mettler received his certificate of solvency rehabilitation on Thursday.
Mettler subsequently told the Gauteng provincial electoral officer of the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) to “immediately withdraw the declaration of a vacancy” for a COPE proportional representative councillor.
“The IEC has confirmed receipt of a letter from the city manager for the withdrawal of the vacancy declaration and undertook to process it accordingly, as they are still within the 21-day time limit,” Tshwane metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba said.
“Accordingly, all the benefits and perks accorded to Makwarela as the executive mayor of the City of Tshwane have forthwith been reinstated.”
Business Day reported that the capital city of Tshwane was rudderless and scrambling to approve its adjustment budget before a National Treasury-imposed deadline of March 31.
The adjustment budget was due to have been approved by the metro’s council at the end of February, but was delayed because there was no executive mayor and mayoral committee.
Municipal adjustment budgets, like the national medium-term budget policy statement, are tabled midway through a budget cycle and gives metros the opportunity to review and adjust revenue and expenditure estimates.
Mettler has since written to the National Treasury for an extension and was given a deadline of March 31.
The metro was left without a mayor and a mayoral committee after Mettler this week “disqualified” Makwarela from serving as a city councillor, effectively preventing him from being mayor.
“If there is no executive mayor and mayoral committee, we may find ourselves in a serious predicament in terms of governance issues,” metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba said on Wednesday. “Service delivery may also be affected. If council doesn’t approve the adjustment budget by March 31 we are in trouble.”
In his maiden state of the province address on February 20, Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi expressed concern about the state of governance in Tshwane. He said the situation was “worrying” and that the metro was “struggling to pay Eskom”.
“The most recent report from the auditor-general report has painted a bleak picture of a collapsing municipality ... We will intervene in that municipality as a matter of urgency,” Lesufi said.
Makwarela, who was elected mayor on February 28 to replace DA councillor Randall Williams, is said to have outstanding insolvency issues dating back to 2016. According to the constitution, an individual who is declared an unrehabilitated insolvent cannot hold public office.
Makwarela was the council’s speaker in the DA-led coalition that was ousted two week ago. He denied all allegations of insolvency, claiming it is an old case the DA and Freedom Front Plus were bringing up now to score cheap political points, and had said he would seek to interdict his removal from office.
The instability of coalition administration is also a concern for the SA Local Government Association, which has said service delivery in the province is deteriorating as political parties battle for control of local councils and municipalities.
Makwarela was originally elected mayor after receiving 112 votes, compared with DA councillor Cilliers Brink who received 101. Brink, who had resigned as DA MP in anticipation of being elected, was viewed as a shoo-in for the influential position.
On Tuesday, the Tshwane metro said Mettler had written to the provincial office of the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) in Gauteng, informing it of the vacancy in council arising from Makwarela’s disqualification.
The IEC confirmed receipt of a councillor vacancy in the Tshwane metro by Mettler.
“A municipal manager is the lawfully authorised person to declare a vacancy in a municipal council,” the IEC said. “In the current case, the municipal manager has declared the vacancy because the councillor is disqualified in terms of the constitution in that the councillor falls short of the requirements relating to persons that have been declared unrehabilitated insolvents.”
The electoral commission said once a vacancy is declared by a municipal manager, it has an obligation to fill the vacancy within the time frames prescribed in the Structures Act.
“In the present case, the party that had nominated the councillor has 21 days from the date of the vacancy, to amend its party list and to indicate to the electoral commission a candidate to be declared elected to the vacant seat,” the IEC said.
“In the event the party fails to amend its list the chief electoral officer will declare the candidate at the top of the existing list elected after the expiry of the 21-day period afforded to the party.”
COPE spokesperson Dennis Bloem said Makwarela had declared he was sequestrated in the completed declaration forms required to stand as a candidate in a mayoral election.
“The entire process of identifying candidates and knowing the background of the candidates is the responsibility of the provincial leadership,” Bloem said.
COPE was concerned about the matter and would investigate how it was possible for Makwarela to “slip through the vetting process”, he added.
“We are equally concerned that Makwarela has been a councillor and speaker since November 2021 without any questions raised. Somebody must answer these questions,” Bloem said.
EFF Tshwane chair Obakeng Ramabodu asked why it was acceptable to have Makwarela as speaker under the “alleged insolvency, but not as executive mayor”.
“This basically means decisions taken by Makwarela as speaker are invalid, including the appointment of Johann Mettler as municipal manager,” he said.
“We have established on good authority that these allegations have been at the disposal of the DA since the inception of the municipal council following the 2021 local government elections.”
"[If] proven to be true, this suggests the DA acted in bad faith and rendered the entire process and decision of the council invalid to achieve malicious intentions.”
ANC Tshwane chair Eugene Modise accused Mettler of over-reach, saying the matter should have been referred to council.
Update: March 9 2023
This article has been updated to reflect that Makwarela has been reinstated as Tshwane executive mayor after city manager Johann Mettler received his certificate of solvency on Thursday morning
With TimesLIVE
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