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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Maquassi Hills Local Municipality will write to the North West MEC for Local Government, Fenny Gaolaolwe, requesting that she investigates the irregular appointment of Thupi Mokgatlha as administrator for the municipality.

Mokgathla is an ANC cadre who is partly responsible for mismanaging Matlosana municipality and leaving it in financial ruin.

Proper procedures were not followed in his appointment, namely:

• No report of Maquassi Hills have been tabled to the National Council of Provinces as required,
• No written notice of the intervention was given to Council,
• There is no legal appointment letter for the Administrator,
• No terms of reverence for the Administrator was issued to Council

They simply ignored council resolutions taken on 12 September where council appointed people in key positions that were vacant since 4 September 2018.

An Acting Speaker was elected for the said meeting and it was resolved to appoint Janet Rudman as Acting MM, Johannes Moegamang as CFO, Nelson Mwase as Acting  Director Engineering and Jeffrey Leisane as Acting Director Community Service.

On Monday 17 September the Mayor Nonnie Kgabi refused to sign the appointment letter for the acting MM and the letter that must inform the MEC of the council resolution.

On the 19 September, we petitioned the Speaker Daphne Notwane for a special council for Tuesday 25 September at 10:00.

The same day we were called into a meeting with the municipality to meet the Administrator – the DA immediately indicated that procedures were not followed as stipulated for a Sec.139 (b) intervention.

Our request for a council meeting petitioned to the Speaker was denied.

The Administrator also terminated Janet Rudman’s appointment and appointed his own acting MM,  CFO, Director Community Services and Acting Director Engineering without consultation of Council.

The ANC is in the game of non-compliance and angry community members already tried to forcefully remove the Administrator – endangering the lives of employees and hindering service delivery.

The communities of Maquassi Hills suffer without access to water, poor sanitation, housing, extreme bad roads and high unemployment rates. They deserve a caring government who acts with accountability in the best interest of the people.

Issued by DA