Gray says removal as Mogale City mayor about access to public purse
Ousted Mogale City mayor Tyrone Gray says the ANC and EFF failed to provide any substantive reasons for their decision to remove him.
Gray, who has been mayor since November 2021, was ousted through a motion of no confidence on Thursday.
Forty-three of the 77 councillors in the municipality voted in favour of the motion.
Gray's removal follows that of the council’s speaker, Jacqueline Pannal, who recused herself after she was also voted out of office.
“I initially thought that I would be quite disappointed,” Gray told Jacaranda FM News on Friday morning.
“However, I am actually quite invigorated and feel more champion to defend and take Mogale City to greater places. When we actually go through the exact contents of the motion, you can see that they don’t actually have substantive issues to remove me, which means that the removal was more about accessing the public purse rather than me being a terrible mayor.”
Gray’s removal follows hot on the heels of Wednesday’s ruling by the High Court in Johannesburg, which ordered the reinstatement of 41 Mogale City councillors.
“They were never actually fired, it’s a misunderstanding from the MEC side. The 41 councillors were notified of the pending process for their removal,” Gray said.
“There is a legal matter pending due to a serious breach of a code of conduct of councillors. The law states that when councillors are absent from three consecutive meetings of council they must be removed from office.
“It’s not a may, it's not a discretion thing, and therefore we will look at avenues to hold those councillors to account and the MEC to execute those duties.”
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