ANC accused of organising 'illegal election' to take over Joburg council

The DA in the city of Johannesburg has accused council speaker Nonceba Molwele of calling an “illegal election”.

The party was referring to a meeting set for Friday this week to elect a new chief whip and a “chair of chairs” - a move that would complete the ANC takeover in the city.

In a statement on Wednesday, DA Johannesburg leader Funzi Ngobeni slammed Molwele, saying she was an illegitimate speaker and should have called for the meeting to sit only on February 27, as per council rules.

Since her election late last year, the DA has continued to label Molwele as illegitimate, after she was elected with the help of some DA councillors who defied the party line and voted with the opposition.

However, the DA has never challenged the outcome of the election in court.

“By calling this meeting, which concerns the election of council office bearers, the ANC is once again flagrantly ignoring the council rules. In the same way the ANC disregarded the procedures governing the election of a speaker, they are once again flouting council rules that guide how elections must be conducted,” said Ngobeni.

He said the decision to hold the meeting on Friday was irrational.

“According to the rules, the speaker is supposed to allow political parties the opportunity to nominate their candidates until at least February 27 2020, which is when the next scheduled council meeting will take place,” said Ngobeni.

He said Molwele was robbing political parties of 20 days, which they were supposed to use to consult their caucuses about candidates for the positions.

“As we have consistently maintained, councillor Molwele is an illegitimate speaker and therefore has no authority on which to convene council.  

“The council meeting in which she was elected was convened in contravention of our council rules, after MEC [Lebogang] Maile illegally instructed the city manager to convene council,” said Ngobeni.

TimesLIVE has reached out to Molwele for comment. This story will be updated.