Mogale City mayor resigns due to ill health

01 December 2016 - 18:09 By Neo Goba
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The newly-elected mayor of Mogale City on the West Rand‚ Lynn Pannall of the Democratic Alliance‚ has resigned due to ill health.

She served just 100 days in office after the DA obtained 27 seats‚ the Economic Freedom Fighters nine seats and the Inkatha Freedom Party one seat in the August 3 local elections to wrest control of the council from the ANC.

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The DA's provincial leader John Moody said: "I can confirm that the mayor has resigned as her health situation has not improved and she felt it was better that she rather tender her resignation as the mayor‚" said Moody.

He said a replacement for the mayor would be announced as soon as a date for a meeting between the DA and its alliance partners was set by Mogale City speaker Patrick Naga Lipuli‚ who also confirmed that the mayor had resigned with immediate effect.

"I was alerted today whilst I was attending a SALGA (South African Local Government Association) conference in Sandton that indeed the mayor has resigned with immediate effect. She has been ill for some time and I think her condition was deteriorating‚" said Lipuli.

According to the speaker‚ Pannall last attended a council meeting on October 14 and missed two since being sworn in.

The DA successfully defeated the African National Congress in Mogale City with the help of other opposition parties.

The ANC won the speaker's seat with the help of votes from the Inkatha Freedom Party‚ which split its vote during the first sitting of the new council‚ voting with the DA for mayor and the ANC for speaker.

The Mogale region‚ with an estimated 100‚000 people‚ is one of the poorest in Gauteng.

On August 18‚ Pannall gave the DA its first municipality in the province when she was sworn in as the new mayor after winning by just one vote.

During the voting in council‚ the DA took the position of the executive mayor with 39 against 38 votes. The ANC retained the position of the speaker of council and also clinched the position of chief whip of council.

During the local government elections the ANC‚ which ran the municipality before August 3‚ won 38 seats while opposition parties won 39 seats combined.

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