PHUTI MOSOMANE
TSHWANE mayor Murunwa Makwarela has resigned with immediate after he was busted for fraud and allegedly submitting falsified documents to land a cushy job at the City council.
This follows confirmation by the Chief Registrar of the High Court in Pretoria Tumelo Ledwaba that the rehabilitation certificate submitted to the Tshwane City Manager Johann Mettler was “fake”.
Ledwaba said he has approached the Hawks to institute criminal proceedings into Makwarela’s insolvency clearance certificate saga.
“I, Tumelo Refilwe Ledwaba, the Chief Registrar of the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division Pretoria hereby confirm that the document purporting to be an order issued by this Court was never issued by our Court”, Ledwaba said.
“I also confirm that no rehabilitation order has ever been issued regarding the parties named in the said document. I am also referring this matter to the office of the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations for their and the institution of criminal proceedings,” he added.
Earlier, Mettler said he has requested the municipality’s legal services to investigate the rehabilitation certificate given to him by Makwarela.
On the other hand, representatives of the multi-party coalition from the DA, ActionSA, IFP. ACDP and VF Plus layed criminal charges against Dr. Murunwa Makwarela at the Brooklyn Police station over the allegations that he “knowingly supplied falsified and fraudulent documentation to the City of Tshwane.
The coalition representatives said the move to proffer criminal charges was necessary to protect the “integrity of the City of Tshwane Council”.
COPE Tshwane region said it has since accepted Makwarela’s resignation, and will soon replace him as a councillor.
“The Congress of the People (COPE) in Tshwane region has duly accepted the resignation of Dr. Murunwa Makwarela as the Executive Mayor of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality following the questions raised over the legitimacy of his Rehabilitation Certificate or Court Order.”
“The region has therefore resolved to give Dr. Makwarela the space required to deal with these personal and legal matters. And to afford him his constitutional right of being innocent until proven guilty,” the party said through a media statement.
The Democratic Alliance said it was now time for credible leadership and delivery-focused government to take place in Tshwane.
“The departure from the scene of Dr Makwarela has been an undignified spectacle and an exhibition of the most brazen dishonesty that South Africans have come to expect from the ANC-EFF coalition of chaos and corruption,” said the party’s ward councillor Jacqui Uys.
“The immediate task now before Council is the election of a new Speaker, followed by the election of a new Executive. Residents of Tshwane deserve a constructive, competent, solvent, and honest Executive Mayor and city government. The DA, along with our Multi-Party Coalition allies, maintain our support for Cllr Cilliers Brink to lead the City’s government as Executive Mayor and give Tshwane a new start.”
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