Pretoria - The ANC in Tlokwe has agreed to vacate the mayor's office and withdraw an urgent application for leave to appeal a court's dismissal of its challenge to the mayor's post, the North West DA said on Wednesday.
“Supra (Mahumapelo, ANC North West chairman) phoned me last night and said Maphetle Maphetle will vacate the office today (Wednesday) and the ANC will withdraw the application,” said Democratic Alliance provincial leader Chris Hattingh.
“We wait to see if that really happens.”
The urgent application was initially scheduled to be heard in the High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday morning.
On Monday, the court dismissed an application by Maphetle to nullify the council meeting at which he was unseated in favour of DA mayor Annette Combrink on July 2.
Judge Neil Tuchten had ordered that he vacate his office by 10am on Tuesday to make way for Combrink. However, when she arrived he refused to leave, saying the African National Congress would appeal.
Hattingh said the dispute about the mayorship was in its fifth week and was frustrating the council's work.
Applications for developments, for example, were not being examined as the council was not sitting. The DA would believe the undertakings when the office was vacated and when the urgent application was withdrawn, he said. - Sapa
* If you use Gmail to read IOL's newsletters, note that Google is rolling out a new tabbed inbox that filters your mail into 5 separate tabs - Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums. IOL emails will probably be sent to the “Promotions” tab instead of the “Primary” tab. If you don't want it that way, drag the newsletter from the Promotions tab to the Primary tab. An alert will pop up. Click “yes” and your newsletters will continue to go to your Primary inbox.