The African National Congress (ANC) in Limpopo has thrown a spanner in the Tzaneen Municipal Mayor Gerson Molapisane’s ‘anti-ANC procedures’ to reshuffle councillor Maria Mmola from the municipal executive committee.
In a letter dated, 7 August 2024, directed to the Norman Mashabane secretary Goodman Mitileni, the ANC provincial secretary ‘Vhamusanda’ Reuben Madadzhe strongly instructed the GTM council to reinstate cllr Mmola as a member of the executive committee, within seven (7) days.
‘The Council is directed to reinstate Cllr Maria Mmola. The reversal should take place within seven (7) days upon receipt of this letter, failing which disciplinary measures will be taken against the deployees’ the letter reads.
According to the ANC’s procedural books, Cllr Mmola was reshuffled from the executive committee without following proper procedures, with sources suggesting that Molapisane in conjunction with ANC Norman Mashabane hopeful Chairperson Goodman Mitileni wanted to send a message of absolute power in the municipality, ahead of the regional conference.
Few days after the letter, GTM’s political management team headed by mayor Molapisane will accede to the ANC’s instruction to hold a special council, with a confidential item to reinstate axed Mmola as an exco member.
The Municipality will today, 14 August 2024 at 14h00, convene a special council, to announce the reinstatement of Cllr Mmola back into the executive committee.
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According to the Municipal spokesperson Neville Ndlala, who confirmed that today the council will sit, said that the municipality followed all the procedures when reshuffling Cllr Mmola, after receiving instruction from the ANC’s deployees in the municipality.
” I can’t comment on ANC’s procedures in deploying and redeploying its members, but as the municipality, we followed the right procedures,” Ndlala said.
Sources within the ANC say Mmola’s reshuffling collapsed the party caucus meetings on two occasions, with some differed from Molapisane’s decision.
” Molapisane axed Mmola based on emotions because he doesn’t like her and forgot that he has no powers to do so.
In these collapsed caucuses, he even told Chief Whip (Given Malatji), that he’ll the municipality how he sees it fit.