Outgoing City of Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams with former Speaker Katlego Mathebe. Image: Twitter/@CityTshwane.
City of Tshwane: Council to elect new Speaker on Thursday
Katlego Mathebe resigned as the City of Tshwane’s Speaker to assume the role of MMC for Environment and Agriculture Management
Outgoing City of Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams with former Speaker Katlego Mathebe. Image: Twitter/@CityTshwane.
Members of the City of Tshwane Council are set to convene a sitting on Thursday morning, 20 January 2022, where they will elect a new Speaker.
This follows the resignation of Katlego Mathebe from the post on Tuesday. Mathebe has now been appointed Tshwane’s new MMC for Environment and Agriculture Management which had not been filled by Mayor Randall Williams when he announced his committee in December.
The DA mayor announced his multi-party mayoral committee, which included MMCs from Freedom Front Plus and ActionSA, after emerging victorious in the local government elections.
Williams has thanked Mathebe for her work and says he looks forward to working together.
“On behalf of the Tshwane metro, I would like to thank Alderman Mathebe for her sterling work during her tenure as speaker of council. She presided over council meetings in a commendable manner during some of the most challenging political periods in the metro”
Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams
WHO WILL BE TSHWANE’S NEW COUNCIL SPEAKER?
There is no official word yet on who gets to replace Katlego Mathebe and preside over what will likely be chaotic council sittings in Tshwane, but according to Rekord, Cope Tshwane regional chairperson Dr Murunwa Makwarela is the man set to take on the post.
Cope holds only one seat in the council.
The past few years have been anything but peaceful in the Tshwane City Council as Speaker, Makwarela has a tough task ahead, having to navigate his way through the heavily-politicised environment, in a job that comes with intense scrutiny.
Mathebe had been the speaker of the council since 2016 and was re-elected unopposed on November 2021, weeks after the municipal polls. Should he be elected, it remains to be seen how he will be received by other political parties and if he’ll be as unpopular as Mathebe, who had to preside over sittings where ANC and EFF councilors would stage walkouts.
“I look forward to working with Alderman Mathebe in her new role as MMC for Environment and Agriculture Management. Her appointment means that all 10 multiparty mayoral committee positions have now been filled.”
Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams
ALSO READ: City of Tshwane says power should be restored to affected areas soon
