Pretoria - Tensions ran high at Tshwane House today as the EFF stormed the outgoing mayor Randall Williams’s office, demanding that all members of the mayoral committee and political staff must vacate municipal offices.
They claimed that the Municipal Structures Act required a dissolution of the mayoral committee after the mayor had resigned.
On Monday, Williams submitted a letter of resignation to council speaker Dr Murunwa Makwarela, notifying him that he was vacating office with effect from midnight.
However, a few hours later he altered his resignation dates in a second letter, sparking confusion among councillors as to which letter must be accepted as being valid by the speaker.
The EFF stormed Tshwane mayor Randall Williams’s office, demanding that all members of the mayoral committee and political staff must vacate the offices. The EFF are trying to prevent VIP drivers from transporting MMCs with municipal vehicles. @EFFSouthAfrica @CityTshwane pic.twitter.com/uKziVzNsTP
EFF regional leader Obakeng Ramabodu, who led his party’s protest at Tshwane House, insisted that the first letter was valid.
According to him, the mayor’s immediate resignation as reflected in the first letter meant that Williams’ mayoral committee had been dissolved in line with the Municipal Structures Act and that their stay in office was illegal.
There was a heated confrontation between the EFF members and the two MMCs, Kingsley Wakelin for Corporate and Shared Services and Community Safety’s Grandi Theunissen, who were frog-marched out in full view of the metro police.
"This is not an AfriForum. This is the City of Tshwane," one of the protesters yelled at Wakelin as he was manhandled.
Chief of staff in the mayor’s office, Jordaan Griffiths, and other political support staff office bearers were not spared the anger from the EFF councillors who ordered them to leave the offices.
The staff in the mayor’s office told the Pretoria News that they received a communique from city manager Johann Mettler to knock off early and go home for the sake of their safety.
The EFF stormed Tshwane mayor Randall Williams’s office, demanding that all members of the mayoral committee and political staff must vacate the offices. The EFF are trying to prevent VIP drivers from transporting MMCs with municipal vehicles. @EFFSouthAfrica @CityTshwane pic.twitter.com/YJOptNXPGO
— Pretoria News (@pretorianews) February 16, 2023
There was chaos at the foyer of the municipal headquarters, where a group of people gathered to chant songs denouncing the multiparty government in Tshwane.
In the morning, the EFF members kept an eye on the municipal parking lot and the entrance to prevent VIP drivers from transporting MMCs with municipal vehicles.
Tshwane metro police later intervened by escorting the EFF members out of the building because they were deemed to be a security risk.
Speaking to journalists, Ramabodu said: “The Municipal Structures Act, Section 60, sub-section 5 says that if the executive mayor vacates office the mayoral committee appointed by the executive mayor must be dissolved.”
He said the EFF came to make sure the mayoral committee was dissolved.
“This is not a private company Jordaan (Griffiths). You can’t wake up and say that you are resigning and then willy-nilly when you feel somehow you send a second letter saying you don’t resign you are resigning on February 28. What is it that they want to do until the 28th that they failed to do for the past seven years?” he said.
Ramabodu said the mayor was at home and the acting mayor “appointed illegally” was also not in office.
He denied that the EFF members physically forced Wakelin to leave office, saying: “We didn’t push him; we told him to leave and he left.”
He called for the speaker to convene a council sitting because “it is the one that has power to elect the executive mayor”.
Griffiths said the mayor’s resignation was not immediate and that it would kick in as of February 28.
Regarding the confusion of the two letters, he said: “There has been a deliberate attempt to create confusion for the sake of politics, which is unnecessary.”
He said that until Monday midnight the mayor had not resigned and that he was within his legal right to alter the terms of his resignation.
“I think the confusion has been unnecessary and was not in the best interest of the institution,” he said.
He said he would not immediately resign as demanded by the EFF, saying political staff won’t immediately vacate office because they have to serve a three months notice for resignation.
Makwarela this week said he accepted Williams’s amendment of the resignation date after he sought legal advice.
“He has tendered a leave of absence until February 28. He has not resigned as a council and whenever he comes back he will come back as a councillor and not as a mayor,” he said.
Finance MMC Peter Sutton was appointed by Williams as the acting mayor.
Pretoria News