The troubled Ditsobotla local municipality in the North West is without a mayor, less than 24 hours after the council elected Patriotic Alliance’s (PA) Itumeleng Elizabeth Lethoko.
Lethoko, a former member of the ANC previously convicted of fraud, was elected to the mayoral position during a council sitting in Mahikeng on Monday.
Confirming Lethoko’s resignation, PA said in a statement that it fully supports her decision to step down from the post.
“She has tendered her resignation in writing to the speaker, Fikile Alfred Jakeni. It would be unconscionable of her to have continued in this role following the display of blatant corruption in council. She could not be complicit with such behaviour, nor be asked to answer to it,” said the PA.
In her letter to the speaker, Lethoko distanced herself from the ANC’s conduct noting that the PA cannot be associated with “underhanded tactics” flagging corruption. Her concern rises from a matter that was tabled during the sitting on Monday but, according to her, was not on the agenda.
She wrote: “As you well know, following the conclusion of all the items on the council agenda, a surprise matter was tabled – that of appointing the administrator as the municipal manager.
“At no point did the ANC, your party, raise this important matter with me or the PA’s president, Gayton McKenzie, who was present all day in the Ditsobotla council for such important coalition discussions.”
Lethoko gave props to the EFF for trying to dispute some of the items that were discussed in council, saying the manner in which the sitting was conducted was improper.
“I must agree that the EFF was correct in protesting against the tabling of this matter since any additional items should have been tabled through an addendum. The manner in which this was performed was duplicitous in the extreme and was clearly intended to side-step proper council procedures.
“The public protector will find against this administration if we go about conducting our appointments in such an irregular fashion.
“My party, the Patriotic Alliance, will not be associated with underhanded tactics, which one can presume are intended to cover up corruption in Ditsobotla. This coalition government should not exist to protect wrongdoers from going to jail.
“If they have a case to answer for, they should be prosecuted and serve their sentences like the law-defying criminals they are.”
Listing the problems facing the municipality, Lethoko said when she was appointed, she was looking forward to restoring and fixing it instead of “just being concerned at the direction it is going”.
She further affirmed that she does not blame the ANC and acknowledged that coalition governments are “undermined” at the local level mainly by leaders who are “more interested in both lining their own pockets and covering up how they have lined them in the past”.
“As a result, I shall now work in opposition to this local ANC leadership, with the full support of my party. The PA is willing to work in coalition with any party, but not at the expense of its integrity, and it will not be party to corruption,” she said.
Also weighing on the matter, McKenzie said the ANC leadership wanted him to leave the council meeting before it concluded, so it could carry out its plot of corruption, but he insisted on staying. “I was determined to stay until the end. I’m very grateful that I did,” McKenzie said.
“Stunts like these will never be tolerated by the PA. The ANC needs to learn that coalition government is very different to governing a council outright. They cannot keep doing the things that they took for granted before. They have to change their ways.
“We will not be treated like fools, and they deserve to lose power here now, perhaps once and for all.”
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