SAMWU demands removal of Tshwane Mayor who has gone into hiding

26 November 2019

SAMWU demands removal of Tshwane Mayor who has gone into hiding

The South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) is miffed at audio revelations involving the executive mayor of Tshwane Stephens Mokgalapa in which he is heard plotting to victimize senior managers at the City.

We have also noted that the Mayor has been forced by his party , the DA to go on “Special Leave”, this is nothing but an attempt by the DA to protect the Mayor. Essentially, residents of Tshwane do not have a mayor as Mokgalapa has gone in hiding.

The audio recording which circulated widely at the weekend confirmed our long-held view of the existence of a ‘rogue unit’ whose mission is to purge unions representatives and senior managers who are considered “impediments” to the grand plan to capture the city and to raid the public purse.

At the Centre of the ‘rogue unit’ lay Mokgalapa and the pliable acting city manager Moeketsi Ntsimane whose desperation to be affirmed as permanent city manager has been him abdicating his ‘independence’ and kowtowing to unlawful and illegal executive instructions.

Many senior officials have been suspended, some of whom for over a year without being subjected to a process, court decisions are being disrespected and Human Resources policies and collective agreements are being undermined by a recalcitrant Ntsimane whose behaviour has been nothing short of a ‘hired gun’ whose sole purpose is to execute the purge on behalf of the rouge unit.

In the audio clip whose contents Mokgalapa has selectively admitted to coming out of his mouth, he usurps the powers of the accounting officer and Council and like a cowboy in a Western movie undertakes to FIRE senior officials. Mokgalapa effectively became the complainant, presiding officer and judge at the same time.

We are equally perturbed by Mokgalapa’s lackey, Ntsimane, who in the audio Mokgalapa confirms that he is a willing participant to the nefarious activities of the executive head and his gang. While we do not have a problem with two consenting adults having sex, we have a problem with them engaging in such an activity at the city’s offices. Had it been an employee found to have had sex in a municipal office such an official would have been summarily dismissed.

We were taken aback by the comments of the DA Provincial Leader, John Moodey, a known Mokgalapa ally, who says the mayor will remain in office pending the finalisation of an investigation into him that is underway. What is there to investigate when all evidence is out in the public domain?

We have also noted the amateurish diversionary tactics of Mokgalapa and his mistress, MMC for Roads and Transport Sheila Senkubuge, of laying blame at the door of the so-called suspended officials. There are questions that the compromised mayor and his mistress need to answer, and they should not take us for fools. Did the so-called suspended officials arrange for them to meet at InfoTech Building for a nooky, did they record them, did they force them to make those unsavoury comments about their own colleagues and did they force them to victimise senior officials?

We appreciate the steps Mokgalapa has taken to approach law enforcement to lay a charge of extortion and blackmail. We are looking forward to seeing him adduce irrefutable evidence of extortion and blackmail in the same way we have evidence of him and Senkubuge engaging in a lurid activity.

The behaviour and conduct of the executive mayor were not in keeping with the values of the Constitution and the Municipal Systems Act. We can’t stand idly by while officials are being victimised, harassed and purged by politicians who have a scant regard for the Constitution and the MSA.

Mokgalapa and Ntsimane behaved as though they own the City and its employees. They think they are a law unto themself. Officials fear going to work, they are made to do wrong things and threatened if they don’t toe the line.

Departments and divisions are headed by junior officials that have collapsed service delivery because senior managers have either been purged or suspended. Council can’t afford to bury its head in the sand in the midst of a scandal of this magnitude. The abuse of power and flagrant violation of the labour rights of officials must be nipped in the bud with immediate effect.

We therefore call on Council at its last meeting on Thursday, 28 November 2019, to fire “Mr Fire” through a motion of no confidence and to reject Mokgalapa’ s report on the appointment of the City Manager. Any political party that doesn’t support this motion would be showing a middle finger to the voters and will have to account to the electorate in 2021.

Refusal to support a motion of confidence against Mokgalapa would mean endorsement of his behaviour. Sexcapade aside, Mokgalapa has owned up to the audio recording during a television interview, that admission is enough to send him packing.

Issued by SAMWU Tshwane Region

Valentine Matlala
Deputy Regional Secretary
084 465 5598

Nkhetheni Muthavhi
Regional chairperson
072 378 5044