The ANC’s plan to remove Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille via a vote of no confidence has been thwarted.
On Thursday, council speaker Dirk Smit said the motion for a vote of no confidence will not be heard at Tuesday’s council meeting. In a statement‚ Smit said a notice of the motion filed by ANC chief whip Thandi Makasi was not compliant with the city’s rules of order.
According to the rules‚ a notice of motion should be in writing and should contain the signatures of the councillors sponsoring and seconding it‚ he said.
"The letter received from the ANC chief whip contains only the signature of another ANC councillor‚ Councillor Petronella Heynes‚ and is signed on behalf of the chief whip," he said. "It is thus not clear who the member submitting the notice is‚ who the seconder is‚ and, in any event‚ lacks a second signature if Councillor Heynes is either of these members."
The motion was also not compliant with another rule that requires 10 working days’ notice for motions submitted for a council meeting.
"The notice therefore does not meet the time-frame required to be placed on the council agenda for the meeting to be held on December 5 2017‚ as requested in the covering e-mail of November 29 2017 from Councillor Heynes‚" said Smit.
Makasi said she could not comment as she had not yet seen Smit’s statement about the motion.
On Wednesday‚ the ANC called for the vote of no confidence in De Lille amid numerous allegations of misconduct and possible corruption in her administration.
Citing an affidavit by the executive director in De Lille’s office‚ Craig Kesson‚ ANC leader in Cape Town Xolani Sotashe said the mayor had deliberately misled the council. Kesson alleged that De Lille had asked him to bury a report into possible corruption within the MyCiTi bus system.
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