City of Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba has called on Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlement, Uhuru Moiloa, to remove an ANC councillor found guilty of numerous acts of misconduct.​

Mashaba, reacting to an Ethics Committee investigation report, said Moiloa should recall Mally Mokoena from her position as a councillor of the City of Johannesburg.

Mokoena was the MMC for Group Corporate and Shared Services under former Mayor Parks Tau’s administration. In June 2016, the Speaker of Council Vasco da Gama received a letter of complaint from the former MEC for Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlement, Paul Mashatile, in which he called for an investigation into ​allegations of corruption against Mokoena.

 The letter emanated from an anonymous complaint lodged on March 14 2016.

 The allegations levelled against Cllr Mokoena include:

·       Cllr Mokoena removed a competent and capable administrator from office without cause or without following Human Resource procedures in order to replace her with her niece;

·       Cllr Mokoena allegedly provided her niece with interview questions prior to the interview, giving her an unfair advantage; and

·       Following a personal dispute with her niece, Cllr Mokoena attempted to remove her from the position, using the services of three law firms in this endeavour, at the cost of the City. This was done against City’s Legal Advisor’s position that there were no valid grounds for dismissal.

The report submitted to Council recommended that Councillor Mokoena be censured by the current MEC for Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlement, MEC Uhuru Moiloa, and be dismissed from her role as Councillor within the City of Joburg.

 Mashaba condemned Mokoena for her actions.

He said: “In an environment where so many people battle to enter the job market, it is appalling that a then MMC, responsible for HR practices, would abuse her position to force someone out of a job without cause and privilege a relative over other applicants competing for the role."

“The irony of this matter is that the ANC and Councillor Mokoena have often wrongly accused the multi-party government of having no regard for rules and process of the City. This report, pertaining to the former MMC responsible for HR practices in the City, demonstrates these criticisms were political in nature rather than based on any kind of values.”

 Mashaba insisted that Moiloa could not delay taking action against Mokoena, citing a piece of legislation which forces him to act.

 “The rules of our Council require that the MEC of COGTA authorises a proposed sanction of dismissal for a Councillor where wrongful conduct is determined. It is my hope that the MEC will act impartially and take immediate action against the Councillor for the benefit of our residents,” said Mashaba.

 The mayor also announced that he requested the City’s legal team to investigate whether it would be possible to bring “direct legal action against Councillor Mokoena” in order to recover all legal costs incurred by residents, as a result of her alleged “unethical conduct”.

 ​It is understood that the report also makes findings against three other ANC Councillors for various infractions of the Council rules, for one of which, Council recommendations a six-month suspension.