Johannesburg – Gauteng Cooperative Governance and Human Settlements MEC, Paul Mashatile, has reinstated the chief whip and speaker at troubled West Rand's Mogale City municipality after they were unceremoniously removed at a council meeting last week.
Mashatile intervened at the coalition-led Mogale City as a tug of war between political parties raged on.
The African National Congress (ANC) in the West Rand had accused Democratic Alliance mayor Michael Holenstein of calling an illegal urgent council meeting where speaker Patrick Naga Lipudi and chief whip Sipho Dube, both ANC officials, were removed from their positions through a motion of no confidence.
They were replaced by Enerst Modise and Jacque Hoon, both DA officials.
ANC spokesperson in the region, Kefentse Mangope, said it was agreed by all parties, led by the DA and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) coalition, that last week's council meeting where the officials were removed was illegal.
"The MEC of COGTA and Human Settlement had to intervene in the governance crisis that plagues the once thriving municipality, as the DA and EFF coalition collapsed governance and thus negatively affecting service delivery. Our insistence that the meeting that ousted Speaker Naga Lipudi and Chief Whip Sipho Dube was illegal has been vindicated," Mangope said on Friday.
"After the meeting was taken through applicable legislation by MEC Mashatile, the coalition parties (DA, EFF and Freedom Front Plus) agreed that their meeting was not in line with the law."
Holenstein was elected mayor in December last year, following the resignation of DA's Lynn Pannall due to ill health.
Holenstein took the mayoral position after beating Lipudi and received 39 votes against 38 for Lidipu.
Pannall had also beaten the ANC's Peace Mabe by a single vote to take over as mayor after last year's local government elections.