The mayor of Bloemfontein’s Mangaung council, Papi Mokoena, was still in office on Thursday, defiantly ignoring an African National Congress order to step down.
Mokoena; the Mangaung council speaker Zongezile Zumane; city manager Mojalefa Matlole and other officials have been charged in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court with corruption after a Scorpions’ investigation.
On Monday, the Free State ANC provincial working committee effectively fired Mokoena when they asked him to resign from his position as executive mayor. Free State provincial secretary Charlotte Lobe said Mokoena was removed from office not because he is accused of corruption, but because he ignored an ANC instruction to stay at home on special leave until the court decided his fate.
Last week Mokoena returned to his office after almost two months of special leave, defying the ANC. On Thursday he issued a statement saying he would go back on leave for a week but would return on October 31. Through his spokesperson, Lele Mamatu, Mokoena denied he had been asked to resign. He said he would not step down.
Lobe denied notions that the ANC had been particularly harsh on Mokoena as he had aligned himself with a faction opposed to the dominant grouping led by ANC provincial chairperson Ace Magashule. The province’s ANC Youth League has backed Mokoena, saying his firing was the result of mismanagement by the provincial party.
Asked why other mayors accused of graft in the Free State had not also been arrested, Lobe said Mangaung was the only municipality in the province to be raided by the Scorpions. She said it was immaterial whether Mokoena accepted the ANC decision — he simply had to comply. She had only suspended Mokoena after an attempted engagement with him proved fruitless.
There is confusion about Mokoena’s position in the ANC. Deputy provincial chairperson Pat Matosa said he had been relieved of his position as a member of the Bloemfontein regional executive, while Lobe disputed this, saying he remained a member.
Mokoena is not be the first mayor to defy the ANC in the province. Last month the mayor of Nala municipality, Baard Tswai, wrote to the ANC saying he would ignore his suspension.