The spotlight on the metro follows after the council on Wednesday decided to remove the acting city manager, Sello More, in an unusual manner. It’s said that the council had introduced a motion to remove More as the accounting officer.

A source tells OFM News that the motion was an irregular one since More is just an accounting officer and not a politician in council. The source says what the council should have done, was to write to More and issue a letter with the intention to suspend him, pending an investigation. This source suspects that More was just used as a sacrificial lamb to settle a political score within the majority party in the council.

On Thursday, a message purported to be from the ANC, did the rounds on social media, and directed councillors to not attend the council sitting. The message read: “By the directive of the ANC, the cllrs of the ANC will not attend today's council meeting due to the fact that council items are still being processed by the ANC. Following the message, about 15-16 councillors from the ruling party made it to the council sitting, which the public could not attend. This council then voted for the removal of More. More was supposed to act in his position until 31 January, since the post of city manager was advertised by the metro.

The SABC reports that the move comes after the Supreme Court gave an order that More's appointment by the MEC for Cooperative Governance (Cogta), Mxolisi Dukwana, was illegal. It's understood that the acting City Manager is now Tebogo Maine.

OFM News