EFF protest against Ephraim Mogale Speaker’s alleged unethical behavior
MARBLE HALL
About 400 Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) members from different parts of Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM), have on Tuesday 28 January 2025, converged at Ephraim Mogale Local Municipality (EPMLM) offices in Marble Hall to hand-over a memorandum against alleged unethical behavior and misconduct levelled against Municipal Speaker, Rebecca Lentsoane.
As part of their grievances, the party was complaining about Lentsoane’s lack of respect towards EFF caucus leaders and party leadership as a whole.
The party stated that on various occasions, the speaker said on record that there is nothing they can do, referring to EFF Regional Leadership.
Last year, the EFF reported Lentsoane’s alleged unethical practices to Limpopo MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs (Coghsta), Basikopo Makamu and later escalated the matter to Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Velinkosi Hlabisa. However, the party said both the provincial and national offices could not respond to their concerns.
Ali Maloba, EFF Chairperson in Sekhukhune Region, said the protest was motivated by Lentsoane’s latest unethical utterances she made by verbally attacking one of the councillors, Sibongile Mashiane during a council meeting held on Friday 24 January 2025.
Maloba indicated that other offences committed by Lentsoane include her refusal to allocate working resources to EFF councillors and she also wants to interfere in internal affairs of the EFF resolutions by ignoring portfolio committee realignments directives from the party.
Maloba added that in a previous occasion, Lentsoane refused their party chief-whip a deployment in the Municipality’s Public Account Committee (Mpac) and practiced blatant disregard for standing rules when dealing with Cllrs of the EFF.
Handing-over the memorandum, Maloba said the party demands a public apology from the speaker and a future commitment that all EFF councillors will be treated with fairness in accordance with any rules of the council.
“We demand that our councillors receive their tools of trade. We demand that all communication from EFF leadership with regards to our councillors be implemented without fail,” he said.
Maloba said the party had given EMLM seven working days to respond to the memorandum.
Legale Sereko, EPMLM Spokesperson, denied EFF claims about Lentsoane’s attack on Mashiane during the recent council meeting.
“We have listened to the audio clip of the said council but could not pick up any sense or element that seem to suggest that the speaker verbally attacked Councillor Sibongile Mashiane or any councillor whatsoever. What we have picked from the audio clip is that certain councillors were raising their points of order and the speaker of council was trying to make a ruling on those points of orders. In her attempt to rule on those points of order, she repeatedly advised councillors about the standing rules and orders that were adopted by the council. This was after the councillors raised several point of orders that the speaker of council felt were not in line with standing rules and orders of the council,” explained Sereko.
He added that it is common knowledge that tempers might have flared when councillors wanted to raise their points of order and the speaker was attempting to rule on them, however, there is no conclusive and readily available facts or evidence from the audio clip that seem to suggest or point that the speaker attacked Mashiane or any other councillor.
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