MAP16 war goes to court

By Emily Setona

QWAQWA — The MAP16 Civic Movement’s claim to be ‘more united than ever’ has been shattered — its vicious factional war is now before the High Court.

PR Councillor Paratlane Motloung has confirmed that the party is deeply divided and that the expulsion of eight councillors by a rival faction has triggered urgent legal action.

“As MAP16 Civic Movement, we have factions within the party. That is why the courts are involved,” Motloung told _The Guard_ exclusively on Wednesday, 16 September.

The legal showdown follows an announcement on 31 August by a faction led by former executive mayor Gilbert Mokotso that eight councillors had been expelled. Five were ward councillors, three — Motloung, Azael Nhlapo and Khanyi Molefe — are PR councillors deployed by the party to council.Motloung says the purge was illegal.

Only the three PR councillors received expulsion letters. The five ward councillors were simply declared expelled on the grounds that they had registered as independent candidates with the IEC

But according to Motloung, there were no charges, no disciplinary hearing, and no legitimate authority behind the decision.”In all this, there were no charges or proper processes followed to indicate in what capacity Mokotso and his faction acted,” he said.

The dispute has now landed in the Free State Division of the High Court in Bloemfontein under case number 2026-218409, with Motloung cited as the applicant and MAP16 Civic Movement as the respondent. The application was electronically filed by the Registrar on 16 September.

Motloung says the court has already granted a temporary order in his favour.

“Fortunately, we have received a temporary order from court and the return date is 15 October. They have to state why the court decision shouldn’t stand,” he said.

The order, he says, compels the Mokotso faction to publicly correct its claim that the councillors were expelled and to acknowledge the court intervention.

The court action directly contradicts Mokotso’s recent assertion to _The Guard_ that MAP16 was heading into elections “more united than ever” despite the expulsions. While Mokotso admitted parallel structures existed in some wards, he insisted efforts were underway to reunite the movement.

Motloung’s court papers tell a different story.

Months of infighting, competing elective conferences, and battles over who legitimately leads the party have now exploded into open warfare.

“The long and short of it is that there is indeed factionalism within the party at the moment,” Motloung said.

With a return date of 15 October, the High Court will now have to decide what MAP16 itself has failed to resolve — who really leads the civic movement, and who has the power to expel whom.