This is according to a political analyst in the province, Dr Sethulego Matebesi, who says given the pressures the ANC is currently facing nationally, it is likely that the party in the province will rather ask Mlamleli to resign privately or improve her service delivery offerings to the metro.

OFM News previously reported that the ANC in the Mangaung region in the Free State has confirmed that it has written to the party’s Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) to express its dissatisfaction with how Mlamleli executes her duties in the region.

The metro currently faces a number of challenges, among others poor service delivery, a looming court battle with Bloem Water, which provides the metro’s six towns with water, as well as the recent damning downgrade from the Moody’s rating service which brought the metro’s rating down three notches following its inability to manage its finances satisfactorily. Matebesi adds that the problems in the metro should have been well anticipated, as he asserts that Mlamleli’s appointment was a political one, alluding to the fact that she was appointed by former provincial premier Ace Magashule. “It was bound to happen. Even if she has a track record of serving at government, there has always been an expectation that she would not be able to live up to the demands of that position as that was actually a token position… and this is just the natural outcome of that particular process,” Matebesi says. While he adds that he is surprised by the party in the region’s position on Mlamleli’s inefficiency as the mayor, is a step in the right direction.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance in the Mangaung region has threatened to take the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality to court in the DA’s latest attempts to have Mangaung’s Executive Mayor, Olly Mlamleli, removed. This was revealed last week at a briefing held by the party’s head office in Bloemfontein, Free State. This comes after the party earlier in May this year filed a motion of no confidence in Mlamleli, following which Siyonzana in June then allegedly stated that he would not be filing the motion as it was allegedly too vague.

The opposition party’s provincial leader, Kopane says court action will be the party’s last resort in an effort to try and have Mlamleli removed from office. “Simultaneously, we will again write to both the Minister of Cooperative Governance, the MEC for Cooperative Governance, and National Treasury, to demand, on behalf of the residents of Mangaung, that the administration of the Metro be taken away from the City Manager and placed in the hands of an administrator who must be willing and able to put the necessary measures in place to turn this ship around,” Kopane says.

Questions have been sent to the ANC in the Free State’s spokesperson, Thabo Meeko, on how the PEC is handling the matter.

 OFM News