After a long struggle by the opposition to have the Mangaung metro mayor axed, their prayers have been answered. Mxolisi Siyonzana was given a flying kick by his own party, the ANC.
The EFF and other opposition parties have for years demanded that action be taken against him, but these calls fell on deaf ears.
However, Siyonzana’s own ANC interim provincial committee this week did the demolition job, showing him the door.
Asked to comment on his sacking, Siyonzana said he would at this stage not comment.
“At the present moment I cannot say anything until such time I have made a presentation to the ANC, so I will reserve my comments for now.”
Siyonzana has been courting controversy since he was elected mayor of the troubled municipality. Political parties, including some of his comrades, were baying for his blood.
Fikile Mbalula, in a memorial lecture in honour of the of the late ANCYL leader Peter Mokaba, said party deployees who were not performing in government should be fired.
It did not take long after Mbalula’s remarks to see Siyonzana become the first casualty.
Mbalula, guns blazing at the memorial lecture, said: “Just like here in Mangaung, who is the mayor here? Kulelwe nje (people are sleeping). Why do we still have a mayor in Mangaung who doesn’t even know what he is doing?”
The EFF in Mangaung said it was not surprised that Siyonzana was fired.
EFF caucus leader in Mangaung Gopolang Lipale said: “The EFF is not surprised that the ANC has finally chosen to listen and heed the call we have been making that there could never be any good that comes from having Mxolisi Siyonzana as the mayor of Mangaung.
“A well-run and functional Mangaung as a metro is too big a task for someone as uncouth as this fellow.
“Truth be told, at his very best, he was never supposed to be anything more than a supervisor for the general workers in the municipality.
“But because the ANC rewards its stooges and gross incompetence, he was elevated to the highest echelons of the city.”
Sello Dithebe, the spokesperson for the MEC for cooperative governance, Mxolisi Dukwana, and IPC leader, said CoGTA did not get involved in the internal affairs of political parties.
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