Madibeng mayor Douglas Maimane survived a motion of no confidence in a meeting where the council speaker refused to allow voting via secret ballot.
Save South Africa councillor Sydney Monnakgotla, who tabled the motion, is now planning to head to court after speaker Ditshego Mbezi refused to allow voting on the motion via secret ballot.
Maimane is accused of nepotism amid allegations that his daughter and the mother of his children were appointed by the municipality after he took office — something Monnakgotla felt should not be left hanging.
The mayor has previously denied the allegations, telling TimesLIVE Premium that he did not get involved in the hiring of municipal employees except the municipal manager.
Monnakgotla already headed to the courts earlier this year after the speaker initially rejected the motion on two occasions before it was tabled on Friday.
“Now we have requested the minutes of the meeting because what happened on Friday was flawed ... even Maimane was allowed to vote against the motion instead of being asked to leave the meeting,” Monnakgotla said.
Monnakgotla said that once Mbezi refused to allow the secret ballot, he decided “to distance ourselves from the process”.
“We did this because the process was flawed because there's a case law [in South Africa ] involving a motion of no confidence against former president Jacob Zuma where the Constitutional Court ruled the secret ballot was the safest way of voting,” Monnakgotla said.
Monnakgotla said Maimane's presence alone in the meeting was active intimidation against councillors as they were made to vote by show of hands.
He said he believes that Madibeng councillors were intimidated and not allowed space to freely express themselves through a secret ballot.
Monnakgotla said they will decide on a way forward after being presented with the minutes and audio recording of the meeting.
Mbezi said the motion of no confidence tabled by Monnakgotla was now a “done” matter.
“Save SA was given an opportunity to present the motion and request a secret ballot voting as per their motion. Our rules of order by law, under Rule 120, give the speaker the right to choose the mode of voting, either by a show of hands or through a ballot,” Mbezi said.
She said in terms of the Constitutional Court in 2017 in The UDM vs the speaker of parliament, it was ruled that: 'The power lies with the speaker. It is declared the speaker has the power to prescribe the kind of vote in a motion,” Mbezi said.
“The matter [motion of no confidence] has been done, and the council has resolved it.”
Monnakgotla said the allegations against the mayor were serious and could not just be ignored.
One woman whose name is known to TimesLIVE Premium was appointed in 2022 as an admin clerk in the mayor's office and earned just more than R13,000 a month. The woman is said to be the mother of Maimane's children.
A young woman whose name is also known to TimesLIVE Premium was appointed as an intern in the municipality's budget office and was allegedly Maimane's daughter.
Asked in July to confirm how he is related to the two women who were employed at the municipality after he came into office, Maimane said: “The privacy of people mentioned in the inquiry must be respected, and as such, I am not at liberty to comment. Allow me, however, to reiterate the fact that I’m not in any way involved in the municipality's staff recruitment process.”
At the time Madibeng spokesperson Tumelo Tshabalala declined to confirm or deny if the mayor's daughter and the alleged mother of his children were appointed by the municipality.
“The employment of candidates in the municipality is open to everyone that meets the set criteria. It would be disingenuous of us to go about work stations to check how employees relate to one another or with management and political office bearers,” Tshabalala said at the time.
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