Pretoria - The EFF in Tshwane has thrown down the gauntlet to the multiparty coalition partners to take their hands off “our speaker” or expect a revolt against new mayor Cilliers Brink.
This was said by the party regional leader Obakeng Ramabodu in reaction to legal threats by the multiparty coalition to take urgent legal action relating to the refusal of Speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana to allow a motion of no confidence against him to be heard on Monday.
On Monday, Ndzwanana adjourned a special council meeting which was called by city manager Johann Mettler for tabling a motion of no confidence against him.
He cited that 10 of the 108 signatures of councillors used in a petition for the meeting were fraudulent and he therefore dismissed the meeting as illegal.
But the coalition partners, which include the DA, ActionSA, FF Plus, IFP and ACDP vowed to challenge his decision in court, saying they would on Thursday submit papers to that effect.
At the time of publication yesterday, coalition spokesperson Dr Cornè Mulder was yet to shed light on the update regarding the imminent court action.
Ndzwanana, a sole PR councillor of the African Transformation Movement, was voted into office with the support of the EFF and ANC.
Ramabodu said: “The speaker has hardly spent 20 days in office. As much as they want us to give Cilliers Brink 100 days in office we expect them to give our speaker 100 days.”
He said that the EFF was willing to support an adjustment budget, which was yet to be tabled, for as long as the speaker won’t be attacked by the multiparty.
“We will pass any budget as long as there is stability in the office of the speaker,” he said.
He said that the EFF congratulated Brink immediately after he was elected as mayor of Tshwane.
“Unlike them when our speaker was elected they walked out of the council chamber,” he said.
Ramabodu said that he learnt that ActionSA was intending to go to court to challenge the speaker’s decision not to call off a meeting convened to deliberate on a motion of no confidence against him.
“We support the speaker that there were fraudulent signatures received by the speaker from 10 councillors who petitioned him to convene a special meeting to hear a motion of no confidence against the speaker. They leave our speaker and we leave their mayor,” he said.
In a media statement this week, the multiparty coalition said: “(We) remain committed to urgent legal action relating to the refusal of the speaker to allow a motion of no confidence to be considered yesterday. Our legal teams are making progress and will submit court papers on Thursday (yesterday).”
Pretoria News