THE City of Ekurhuleni could wake up on Wednesday, 13 March without a mayor.
Council Speaker, Nthabiseng Tshivhenga, has acceded to the call to reconvene the collapsed meeting to remove Mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana.
The council meeting collapsed on Thursday, 29 February, after EFF members allegedly attacked other councillors.
On Tuesday, 5 March, councillors from ActionSA, ACDP, ANC, DA, FF-Plus, PA, IRASA, IFP, COPE, ATM, PAC, UDM and the ICM met to sign a petition compelling Tshivhenga, via the Municipal Structures Act, to reconvene a council meeting.
However, ActionSA's Ekurhuleni caucus leader Siyanda Makhubo is not happy that the meeting was not called immediately after 193 out of 224 councillors signed a petition for the council to sit on Thursday, 7 March.
"Tshivhenga has decided to unilaterally call for the council to sit rather on Tuesday, 12 March.
"It's clear the Speaker can't be trusted to chair another council meeting in which her fighters will collapse the meeting once again. Councillor Tshivhenga has, from the very beginning of her tenure, been unable to separate herself from her political party, the EFF, and chair council in an unbiased manner," said Makhubo.
He insisted that the city's finances needed to be stabilised, the institutional review rapidly implemented, and quality services delivered to our residents as soon as possible.
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"This can't take place until both the EFF's puppet mayor Ngodwana and their delinquent Speaker are removed from their positions," he said.
The EFF-led municipality has been accused of failing to submit its 2023 Audited Financial Statement to the Joburg Stock Exchange.
This has led to the city to be downgraded to Caa2 - Junk Status by the credit ratings company Moody'.s
"The EFF in government has been a disaster class in public administration, and their inability to separate party and state represents a real threat to democratic norms and principles that govern our local municipalities," said Makhubo.
The DA's Shadow MMC for Finance in Ekurhuleni Fana Nkosi said they noted with "serious concern" the city's credit rating downgrade by the agency.
"Unfortunately, this damning downgrade by Moody's will have a crippling impact on service delivery to communities, as an already struggling city will now struggle even more to gain credit or loans," said Nkosi.
He said the DA was worried that the residents might have to pay more for their already compromised service delivery in the city.
Nkosi said: "Service providers go unpaid for months. What will the EFF/ANC do to rectify the situation now?"
The EFF rejected the downgrade saying it lacked solicitation, and that inaccurately suggested that the city has failed to submit its financial statements in time.
Its chairman, Nkululeko Dunga said: "The Gauteng EFF views the unwarranted downgrade from Caa1 to Caa2 with grave concern. It poses an unnecessary challenge for the City of Ekurhuleni to secure loans and bonds vital towards funding its projects."
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