EFF tables motion of no confidence in Tshwane Mayor Mokgalapa

The City of Tshwane council will on Thursday 5 December 2019, hold a special meeting after a motion of no confidence by the EFF was tabled in Tshwane council speaker, Katlego Mathebe and Mayor Stevens Mokgalapa.

If the motion is successful, the Democratic Alliance (DA) may lose Tshwane just after losing Johannesburg to the African National Congress two days ago, on Wednesday 4 December 2019. 

The motion follows Mokgalapa’s sex scandal, where he allegedly had sexual intercourse with Roads and Transport MMC, Sheila Senkubuge.

Mokgalapa claimed that he was being extorted and blackmailed after an audio recording, allegedly detailing his sexual misconduct with Senkubuge, was leaked.

The DA has since appointed Abel Tau as the acting Mayor of Tshwane.   

Motion of no confidence in Stevens Mokgalapa

According to SABC News, the EFF, as well as the ANC are out to get Mokgalapa, as they feel Tshwane has been living from scandal to scandal ever since he was appointed. 

After tabling a motion of no confidence in Mokgalapa, speaker Mathebe disallowed it. 

Tshwane has 214 seats.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) currently has 92, the ANC has 89 and the EFF has 25 seats.

Both the EFF and the ANC had previously indicated they would work together to oust the DA’s Mokgalapa.

Mokgalapa’s special leave cancelled 

Chief Whip, Christo Van den Heever cancelled Tshwane Mayor, Stevens Mokgalapa’s special leave after EFF and ANC councillors put pressure on him to reject it.  

In a council sitting ahead of a motion of no confidence in Mokgalapa, both the EFF and the ANC councillors rejected his special leave of two months. 

According to Pretoria News, they exerted pressure on Van den Heever to withdraw the decision he made, to approve Mokgalapa’s leave.

After long deliberations, Van den Heever eventually agreed to cancel it.

Recording had been doctored 

He said the recording had been doctored and has since laid charges of extortion against law enforcement agencies. A statement issued by the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Gauteng Provincial Leader, John Moodey, late on Sunday 24 November, said:

“The DA’s political leadership will meet with the mayor whilst the DA’s Federal Legal Commission has been tasked to conduct an internal investigation into the matter.

Mayor Mokgalapa has laid charges of extortion and invasion of privacy against some known and unknown individuals at the Brooklyn police station as well as with the Hawks.”