By Cllr Trudie Grovè-Morgan: MPL – DA Spokesperson on CoGTA
Mpumalanga Premier, Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, must relieve CoGTA MEC Mandla Msibi of his duties as a Member of the Executive Council (MEC) until the courts clear him of the serious alleged criminal charges he is facing.
Msibi is expected to appear at the Nelspruit Regional Court on September 6 and October 4 to face alleged charges of attempted murder, malicious damage to property, robbery and assault GBH. The alleged charges date back to August 2017 while he was still Speaker of Mbombela local municipality.
The alleged charges against Msibi are of a serious nature and if Premier Mtshweni-Tsipane is serious about ridding this province of corruption, she cannot keep Msibi as MEC until he clears his name.
Msibi was sworn in as Member of the Provincial Legislature early this year and Premier Mtshweni-Tsipane eventually appointed him to the CoGTA portfolio, despite the fact that she knew he was facing these serious alleged charges. This clearly shows that the ANC doesn’t take people who voted for them seriously.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) challenges Premier Mtsweni-Tsipane to suspend Msibi as MEC until he is cleared of all alleged charges levelled against him. These are serious allegations that the Premier can’t just ignore.
CoGTA is the cornerstone of local government and municipalities are the coal face of service delivery. It will be a sad day if Premier Tsipane fails to act against Msibi and take the people of Mpumalanga in confidence and to show them that she’s serious about ridding this province of corruption.
While Msibi may remain a member of the Legislature, this is the time for Tsipane to release Msibi of his duties as CoGTA MEC until he is cleared of all these horrific alleged crimes.
Premier Tsipane promised the people of Mpumalanga that her tenure as Premier will see her focus on tackling corruption headon as corruption robs our people of service delivery. The time for her to put her words into action is now.