Ngoma scoffs at colleagues� accusations
Chakalisa Dube | Wednesday June 7, 2017 17:11
Francistown mayor Sylvia Muzila along with six BDP councillors late last week allegedly petitioned five of their BDP colleagues to the party leadership for attempting to topple her (Muzila) through a motion of no confidence.
The five-petitioned councillors are Peter Ngoma, Lesego Kwambala, Lechedzani Modenga, Cornelius Gopolang and Gaethusi Ramolotsana. “I am surprised that we are being accused of attempting to topple the mayor. I wonder where our fellow councillors got that information from,” Ngoma said.
Ngoma continued, “what I know is that one of the opposition councillors wanted to introduce a new item on the council agenda. He could not do so because of the legalities raised by those who reported us.
We stormed out of the council because we did not agree with legalities which prevented the motion from being tabled”. Ngoma said that he wondered why his fellow BDP councillors assumed that the new item, which the opposition councillor wanted to introduce as a matter of urgency, was a motion of no confidence against Muzila.
“I do not even understand why they reported us to the party because our arguments were based on council activities,” he said. The petition, which is directed to party secretary general, Botsalo Ntuane, was submitted late last week and was copied to the Francistown region chairperson, Baemedi Medupi.
The councillors who have signed the petition issued to the party leadership are Joe Play Gunda, Baboni Mosalagae, Badubi Lekang, Godfrey Kaelo, Andy Boatile, Zazambi Tuelo, Oratile Tumedi, Themba Mbambo, James Kgalajwe and Zibani Benfield. Gunda confirmed the petition yesterday.
In the petition Muzila and her backers accused their colleagues of behaving in an irregular manner which was obstructive to the city council and want the party leadership to take action. The concerned councillors said that since May 29 at the start of the council it became clear that the five councillors had intentions of finding grievances against the mayor in order to justify their bid to table their motion of no confidence.
“In our view it has become apparent that their mission was to find means for submitting an urgent motion of no confidence against the mayor and her deputy. “All of them (Ngoma and co) including opposition members commented badly over the speech that it contained nothing to go by and that there was absolutely nothing going on in the city for developments,” reads the petition.
The six councillors also said they believe that Ngoma and Gopolang are the instigators of the unrest that has characterised the council because they reportedly want to replace Muzila and her deputy respectively.
The motion (although it was not tabled, it was speculated that it’s an urgent motion of no confidence against Muzila and her deputy) was not tabled because of legal technicalities disputed by Ngoma’s team.
Last month, Ngoma contested the mayoral elections at a BDP caucus but lost to Muzila. Gopolang was to contest the mayoral elections against Muzila but stepped down a day before the elections.
Last week, it was speculated that Gopolang would replace Radisigo as Muzila’s deputy through a motion of no confidence, which could not be tabled. On the other hand it was speculated that Ngoma would replace Muzila.
“Arguments erupted from there (after the motion could not be tabled) and these were mainly rendered by Ngoma and his BDP team.
The arguments developed to the extent that there was disorder and obstruction even when the town clerk was rendering advice,” alleged the petition. Ntuane was not available for comment yesterday.
His mobile phone rang unanswered. Medupi confirmed seeing the petition but could not be drawn into discussing it because it is beyond his mandate.