Johannesburg - Mayor Herman Mashaba on Wednesday requested the council to stop paying the salaries of two African National Congress Councillors because of " criminal activity which they have been implicated in".
Mashaba, who is a member of the Democratic Alliance (DA), said: "Today, I will be writing to the Speaker of the Joburg Council, Cllr Vasco Da Gama, to request that Council stop salary payments to two ANC Councillors due to criminal activity which they have been implicated in".
The Johannesburg mayor, who took over the reigns from the ANC's Parks Tau in August last year, has publicly announced that he intends to rid the city of corruption, which he blames on the previous administration.
"Despite the ANC’s claims to have expelled ward 92 Councillor, Leepile Motsumi, from its ranks due to allegations of fraud and corruption, I have learnt that Mr Motsumi is still being handsomely rewarded by the ANC with a Councillor’s salary," Mashaba said in a statement sent to the media.
"On 17 October 2017, Mr Motsumi was arrested by the Hawks, working together with the City’s Group Forensic and Investigation Service (GFIS) Department, for the illegal sale of two City owned property stands. The stands were sold for a total of R210 000."
Mashaba added, in "supposedly expelling Motsumi with immediate effect, the ANC in its statement claimed that its so-called Integrity Committee found that: the allegations [had the] huge potential to tarnish the name of the ANC and bring the organisation into disrepute….We will not shy away from disciplining any Councillor of the ANC should they be found guilty of an offence.”
He said is was bizzare that the ANC continues to "reward" Motsumi, for his alleged corrupt dealings, with a Council salary.
Mashaba said Motsumi was not the only one to be "rewarded for criminal conduct".
He said Ward 21 Councillor, Mpho Sesedinyane, who convicted last week Tuesday of the crime of assault by the Protea Magistrate’s Court, also continues to draw a Councillor’s salary.
"The crime in question occurred in February last year when ANC members brawled among themselves over who should be elected as ANC ward candidates during the last municipal election. During the incident, a 55-year-old man was sadly injured," said Mashaba. The man died allegedly from injuries sustained in the brawl.
He said the ANC administration "ran the City into the ground by disciplining corrupt officials with nothing more than a slap on the wrist".
The mayor said since he came into office,his administration has uncovered close to R16 billion in corruption and more than 2,000 cases needing investigation.