Johannesburg - In what appears to be a merry-go-round between the Patriotic Alliance (PA) and the ANC in the Ditsobotla local municipality, reports indicate that PA member and mayor of the local municipality, Itumeleng Elizabeth Lethoko, has withdrawn her resignation.
On Tuesday, Lethoko made the news after she resigned from her new position as mayor a mere few hours after the council had elected her after the ANC and the PA formed a coalition that saw them take over the municipality.
According to an article by the Daily Maverick, Lethoko has withdrawn her controversial resignation following successful meetings between ANC and PA leaders.
Her resignation had not been processed by councillor Fikile Alfred Jakeni, who has now accepted her withdrawal.
On Wednesday, the leader of the Patriotic Alliance (PA), Kenny Kunene, said they had an issue with the handling of a matter and a proposal to appoint a "corrupt" ANC municipal manager, which brought the relationship to a halt and resulted in the resignation of Lethoko.
In her letter to the speaker, Lethoko alluded to a "surprise matter" of appointing an administrator to become a municipal manager as the reason for her resignation, without this matter being raised by the coalition party, the ANC.
Kunene spoke to Jacaranda FM, where he said the party could not turn a blind eye to corruption and illegal practices.
He said that the ANC had tried to sneak in their own candidate as the municipal manager without having cleared this with them.
"Our position is that even if you vote for our candidate to be the mayor, we can’t turn a blind eye when you do illegal practices. When you are corrupt, we cannot turn a blind eye and would rather resign.
"The power that we want to serve our people with should not come at the cost of good governance," said Kunene.
He said the biggest issue the party had with the ANC was its insistence on trying to sneak onto the agenda the appointment of the municipal manager.
"That item was not on the agenda, and that is not how the council works. None of the coalition partners, including the mayor, had seen the CV of this municipal manager. None of the coalition partners was consulted about the matter being placed on the agenda because the appointment of a municipal manager must go through council voting. Right at the beginning of the coalition, the ANC wanted to bypass council regulations," Kunene said.
The Star