10 March 2023
Today, Mr Johann Mettler, City Manager, received and accepted a resignation letter from Cllr Murunwa Makwarela as Executive Mayor of Tshwane with immediate effect.
Cllr Makwarela has been embroiled in a dispute with the City over his sequestration order in 2016 and his assertion that he had been rehabilitated in 2018, which authorities have confirmed to be untrue.
Mr Mettler has since written to the Gauteng Provincial Officer of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) this afternoon again, informing him of a casual vacancy which occurred at the City following the disqualification of a Congress of the People proportional representative (PR) councillor, Cllr Murunwa Makwarela.
This disqualification is in terms of Section 158(1)(c), read with Section 47(1)(c), of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Furthermore, this disqualification is also in terms of Schedule 1, Section 19(c) and (d) of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 1998 (Act 117 of 1998).
Item 18 of Part 3 of Schedule 1 of the Municipal Structures Act, 1998 stipulates that if a councillor elected from a party list ceases to hold office, the Chief Electoral Officer of the IEC must declare in writing the person, whose name is at the top of the applicable party list, to be elected in the vacancy.
In terms of the Municipal Structures Act, 1998, a party may supplement, change or increase its list at any time, provided that a councillor elected according to a party list ceases to hold office. The vacancy must be filled within 14 days after a 21-day period.
The Congress of the People will have to submit the necessary list for the filling of this vacancy.
Cllr Makwarela was elected to the position of Speaker of Council on 20 January 2022 and as Executive Mayor of Tshwane on 28 February 2023.
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