Pressure for the removal of Polokwane Municipality Mayor John Mpe is mounting, with the Economic Freedom Fighters as the latest organisation to call for his head.
This after EFF from “almost” all the municipality’s wards marched to the municipality offices on Wednesday morning to deliver their memorandum of grievances.
The party is crying foul about various basic services. The shortage of water, skyrocketing electricity tariffs, tender graft, nepotism and poor services within the municipality.
Party leader expressed frustration
EFF leader in Limpopo, Lawrence Mapoulo, who led the march, has since expressed the party’s frustrations. This as all their effort for the march was reduced to nothing, as Mpe never showed up to receive their memorandum.
“Mpe is disrespectful to the people of Polokwane. And he is forgetting that it is the very same people who voted him into power. The clothes, food and the cars he is driving are through the effort of the same people he is disrespectful to today,” said Mapoulo. The EFF leader is a former mayor himself in the same municipality while he was still an ANC member.
“We will keep the memorandum everywhere we go so that we deliver it anytime we see him. Because he can’t hide from us forever.
“Since we couldn’t find Mpe, there was no way we were going to hand over the memorandum to every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Because that would have been useless,” said the veteran politician.
Concerned Citizens of Polokwane
The EFF march comes a week after another organisation held a protest. The Concerned Citizens of Polokwane (CCP) staged a protest march to Polokwane Municipality. They had the same grievances.
Apart from poor services, Mpe and the municipality’s manager Patricia Nomugumoni face various accusations. They are accused of multiple tender corruptions amounting to millions of rands.
Pressed for comments, Polokwane Municipality spokesperson would not be drawn into the matter. He repeatedly said Mayor John Mpe is on a week-long “study” leave. And he refused to be drawn to the name of the institution and the course he is studying.
