The municipality experienced leadership upheaval after the 2016 elections, and will now be searching for its fourth mayor in less than four years. Mogale City Mayor Naga Patrick Lipudi passed away on Sunday morning after a short illness at the age of 59.
He was admitted to Helen Joseph hospital yesterday.
Sabelo Ngwane, chief administration officer in the mayor’s office, confirmed he died after a short illness in the early hours of this morning.
“The family is devastated by this sudden death of a father and a pillar of strength to the wife and kids,” he said.
Funeral arrangements would be confirmed once a family meeting had taken place.
He became the mayor in June 2017 after the ANC wrested back control of the municipality from the DA, with allegations that DA councillors had betrayed their party in an earlier motion of no confidence.
Lipudi was the third mayor to be elected since August, replacing Michael Holenstein, who had himself replaced the DA’s Lynn Pannall, who resigned due to ill health.
At the time, Democratic Alliance councillors were asked to undergo lie detector tests voluntarily to determine who had voted with the ANC. DA councillor Brandon May did not go through with the test and instead sent his letter of resignation to Lipudi, who had been the speaker prior to becoming mayor.
In other news – Cassper Nyovest’s R40 000 camera stolen
Hip hop star Cassper Nyovest and his personal photographer, Jabu Nkosi, are frantically running around in search of the muso’s prized possession – his camera. A night out with friends turned sour when Nkosi lost his boss Cassper’s camera in a cab in Cape Town last Sunday.
According to Nyovest, his protege forgot the Canon EOS 6D camera worth over R40 000 in the maxi cab. continue reading
Source: The Citizen