{"id":194549,"date":"2026-04-19T09:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T09:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/194549\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T09:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T09:40:17","slug":"anc-mayor-maimane-offers-opposition-councillors-cash-to-help-oust-his-own-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/194549\/","title":{"rendered":"ANC mayor Maimane \u2018offers opposition councillors cash\u2019 to help oust his own party"},"content":{"rendered":"

Embattled Madibeng mayor Douglas Maimane<\/a> has been recorded offering opposition councillors money to launch a campaign against his own party, the ANC, ahead of the local government elections.<\/p>\n

And after discovering the clandestine meeting, held on March 10 at Amigos Guesthouse in Brits, had been recorded, Maimane sent lawyers\u2019 letters to the councillors, threatening them with legal action if they shared the clip.<\/p>\n

Maimane has increasingly come under scrutiny from the ANC following a string of controversies at the failing North West municipality, which incorporates Brits and Hartbeespoort. Some party members are pushing for his removal.<\/p>\n

In the 30-minute audio recording, three people can be heard speaking while municipal manager Quiet Kgatla joins via speaker phone. Maimane repeatedly addresses African Independent Congress councillor Peter Tsheola and Forum for Service Delivery councillor Sechaba Sekgotho during the conversation, promising to pay them R200,000 to organise a campaign against the ANC. <\/p>\n

He also expresses disappointment that Madibeng EFF councillor Stanley Komape, who was apparently expected at the meeting, was not in attendance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to the MM [municipal manager],\u201d Maimane says. \u201cThat\u2019s why I wanted Stan to be here \u2014 so that you gents don\u2019t expect millions. We must tell each other face-to-face, unless you want things that cannot happen. But the MM will help where he can.\u201d <\/p>\n

I tell the MM that our defence is from the EFF \u2014 from Stan, Sekhotho, Tsheole and that boy from ACDP. And when these guys come to me asking for money on a Saturday \u2026 I\u2019d be having the last R2,000<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Madibeng mayor Douglas Maimane in recording<\/p>\n

Maimane tells the councillors they will need to be \u201cbrave\u201d to pull this off \u2014 and promises Kgatla will ensure they are given money for the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to him,\u201d he says. \u201cHe should have been here [to] see how he can help, so that you don\u2019t call me \u2026 You can\u2019t keep calling [me] saying, \u2018I don\u2019t have petrol money.\u2019 When you get R10k extra, it\u2019s something.\u201d <\/p>\n

Maimane <\/a>tells the councillors he is in his last term and no longer cares what happens to the ANC. He also encourages them to tell people not to vote for the party. He says they should tell the media \u2014 and specifically mentions TimesLIVE \u2014 that there is a \u201ccircus\u201d in Madibeng caused by ANC infighting and that there is no issue with service delivery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis boy Sydney Monnakgotla [Save SA councillor] goes to TimesLIVE saying the people are demanding that the mayor and the MM account. What do we account for that boy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Maimane says they are planning on booking a venue for a joint press conference. At the end of the meeting, he offers each councillor R500 for petrol: \u201cI tell the MM that our defence is from the EFF \u2014 from Stan, Sekhotho, Tsheole and that boy from ACDP. And when these guys come to me asking for money on a Saturday \u2026 I\u2019d be having the last R2,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maimane also says he doesn\u2019t want the councillors to keep calling him or visiting his house, as that could raise alarm bells. He also warns that their phones could be bugged. Maimane tells them the ANC in the North West is interfering in running the municipality and wrongly suspended him.<\/p>\n

Kgatla, who is put on speaker after returning Maimane\u2019s call, is told about the meeting and the need to help opposition councillors with the campaign.<\/p>\n

Maimane\u2019s spokesperson, Thabo Skhosana, this week acknowledged receiving questions from the Sunday Times about the issue but did not respond to them.<\/p>\n

Kgatla also did not comment, but asked to be provided with the audio clip.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see you are playing journalism games with me and wasting my time,\u201d Kgatla said via WhatsApp on Thursday.<\/p>\n

I see you are playing journalism games with me and wasting my time<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Quiet Kgatla, Madibeng municipal manager.<\/p>\n

The Sunday Times understands there have been two meetings, with the second attended by Kgatla, ACDP councillor Bonginkosi Chiya and Komape.<\/p>\n

The secret deal is believed to have fallen apart when the promise of R200,000 was not honoured.<\/p>\n

Sekgotho, Chiya and Tsheola were applicants for a \u201cpeaceful march\u201d that was scheduled for March 24. The application was made on March 18 \u2014 a week after the first meeting with Maimane. They anticipated that 150 people would attend the march and a memorandum would be handed over at the Brits magistrate\u2019s court.<\/p>\n

The legal letter served on Chuya, Sekgotho and Tsheola on Wednesday accuses them of recording Maimane unlawfully and demands that they do not disseminate the audio.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are herewith informed that you must furnish us with a written undertaking that you will cease spreading the recording, and that you will immediately delete the recording,\u201d the letter states.<\/p>\n

It threatens \u201can interdict against you with [a] special cost[s] order\u201d should they fail to comply.<\/p>\n

Sekgotho declined to comment, saying the matter was now with lawyers.<\/p>\n

Chiya said he was not at the meeting and refused to respond to questions about the march they tried to organise.<\/p>\n

Tsheola said he knew nothing about the recording and did not want to respond to further questions.<\/p>\n

All three confirmed having been served with the legal letter.<\/p>\n

Previous scandals<\/p>\n

Last year a forensic report commissioned by North West co-operative governance MEC Oageng Molapisi found that Maimane had sat on reports meant to be tabled in the council. The commissioned document revealed rampant corruption and maladministration under Maimane. <\/p>\n

Among the cases raised was that Madibeng had appointed multiple service providers for the same job, while millions meant to pay Eskom and water boards were stolen by payments being fraudulently diverted into private bank accounts. Officials suspected of wrongdoing were let off scot-free and allowed to return to work without any \u201cproper investigation [having been] undertaken\u201d.<\/p>\n

In January, ANC councillors in the municipality wrote to the party\u2019s leadership raising concerns over the decline in the municipality\u2019s accountability, governance and service delivery. They highlighted poor leadership, weak oversight, and a failure to act decisively on reported irregularities. <\/p>\n

Last October the National Treasury threatened to cut funding to Madibeng over R8.7bn in irregular expenditure.<\/p>\n

Maimane also came under fire for hiring his daughter<\/a> as an intern in the municipality\u2019s treasury budget office. When he was quizzed by provincial ANC leaders about the issue, he denied he had any relationship with her.<\/p>\n

He also made headlines last October after a municipal bakkie, allegedly being used for farm work on his plot, was involved in an accident while it was being driven by a man not in the municipality\u2019s employ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Embattled Madibeng mayor Douglas Maimane has been recorded offering opposition councillors money to launch a campaign against his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[52],"tags":[4332,68375,99349,261,131],"class_list":["post-194549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-africa","tag-anc","tag-douglas-maimane","tag-madibeng","tag-politics","tag-south-africa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116430715313196067","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}