Yesterday, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) motion of no confidence against Tswaing Local Municipality Speaker, Cllr Phemelo Lebelo, succeeded.
The majority of councillors petitioned the Speaker to convene a special Council meeting at least twelve times and as stipulated in Section 29 and Section 18(3) of the Municipal Structures Act following her failure to convene Council meetings for three months.
The meeting was scheduled and Council invoked Section 41 of the Municipal Structures Act to elect a new Speaker. Cllr Boorman Phutiyagae was elected as the new Council Speaker.
The previous Speaker, Cllr Lebelo, failed in her duties to preside over Council meetings and her removal is a good step towards improving municipal governance and restoring service delivery.
There is a complete collapse in service delivery in Tswaing, municipal departments are non-functional and unresponsive to queries lodged by community members. Sewage flows continuously on almost every street throughout the municipality and residents suffer constant water cuts.
The DA expects the new Speaker to honour and uphold his oath of office and ensure that service delivery becomes a top priority in Council meetings. .We will not relent in our efforts to ensure that the municipality improves service delivery. We will continue in our oversight role to hold the municipal leadership accountable.