Staff Reporter
A councillor in the Free State has been suspended for insulting President Cyril Ramaphosa in a voice recording accusing him of trying to destroy the ruling ANC.
In the recording, which is littered with obscenities, Maputi-a-Phofung Local Municipality Ward 30 councillor Tsietsi Motlokoa appears angry over the suspension of ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule.
He warns Ramaphosa that he should also be investigated for allegedly causing divisions in the province by funding a certain faction in the local council.
The crude utterances prompted the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Thembeni Nxangisa, to urgently institute an investigation leading to Motlokoa admitting to have made the statements.
In one part of the recording, which Motlokoa is believed to have distributed himself after a meeting with other party members in his region, he asks Ramaphosa who he thinks he is for wanting to remove Magashule from office.
“You are not going to dismiss the SG,” said a charged Motlokoa in an apparent challenge to the president.
“Who are you? Who are you to come and dismiss the SG . . . ? Who are you sir, Ramaphosa? Who are you? Or do you think it’s that time you were here in QwaQwa to meet the MAP16? I believe that if we investigate, we will find that you were behind them as their funder,” he said.
Motlokoa clearly introduces himself and his ward in the voice recording as if to ensure there is no mistaken identity.
MAP16 stands for Maluti-a-Phofung 16, a group of councillors expelled by the ANC a few years ago accused of working with the opposition to remove former mayor Vusi Tshabalala.
The councillors went on to contest as independent candidates resulting in the ANC losing 10 seats in a council by-election in August 2019.
It was rumoured that the 16 councillors, who supported Ramaphosa ahead of the ANC national conference in 2017, were bankrolled by the then deputy president in his quest to assume high office.
No one has been able to prove these allegations.
In a statement, COGTA spokesperson Zolile Lobe said the MEC felt it necessary to engage Motlokoa in order to understand what led him to behave in that manner.
He said Advocate Ponoane from Ponoane Attorneys was instructed to investigate the matter in line with the law governing the code of conduct for councillors.
“After consultation . . . (Motlokoa) demonstrated remorse for his conduct and . . . utterances,” said Lobe.
“In line with Section 14 (6)(a) on the breach of code, the councillor is hereby suspended for a period of three months without salary,” he added.
Lobe said the MEC also ordered Motlokoa to issue a statement apologising to the president, his family, the community of Maluti-a-Phofung and South Africa at large.
“The MEC believes councillors are the face of government (at local level) and they need to conduct themselves in a manner that is beyond reproach,” he said.