Daily Sun (October 17 2014) - IT APPEARS the mayor of Sedibeng prefers booze to dignity.
Last year he was involved in two embarrassing drunken incidents. THIS TIME HE WAS CAUGHT ON VIDEO STRUGGLING TO KEEP HIS BALANCE AS HE HUNG ON A BAR COUNTER!
At about midnight on Friday night, the same night the video was taken, Mayor Simon Mofokeng of Sedibeng Municipality in the Vaal, south of Joburg was arrested for alleged drunken driving.
The video taken at the Rafters Pub and Grill in Vanderbijlpark shows him in a less than sober state. He is seen leaning on the counter, drinking heavily and trying to compose himself but failing. He tries to stop the person making the video but can't stand upright or even speak.
After leaving the pub, he was seen driving a rented car, swaying dangerously across the road. The car was stopped near Stonehaven, a tourist destination on the banks of the Vaal River.
He was taken to Barrage Police Station, where he was charged with drunken driving. He spent the night in the police cells.
This is the third time Mofokeng has made headlines for boozing.
In February last year he fell in a bar because he was allegedly drunk. He had to be helped to his feet and in a photo that went viral, Mofokeng is seen sitting on the floor in a bar with a bucket which he was speculated to have puked in.
It was not established how he got home.
In June last year he was arrested for alleged drunk driving. This was after he bumped into another car while leaving Vanderbijlpark Hotel.
He was released on R1 000 bail.
The matter was withdrawn on 5 September last year after the charges were withdrawn for lack of evidence.
The results of the blood tests which were drawn in hospital after his arrest were not revealed.
After his arrest last Friday he was said to have been sneaked out of the police station in the early hours of Saturday morning.
It is not clear whether he was let go or was on police bail.
Gauteng police spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini, confirmed that a case of drunken driving was being investigated.
"It has been temporarily withdrawn pending the availability of a blood report.
"Once it has been received, it will be taken back to court for a decision," he said.
Sedibeng acting director of external communications, Lebogang Mofokeng, rubbished the claims.
She said the Sedibeng Municipality has noted with concern an amateurish video clip circulating alleging that Mayor Simon Mofokeng was in an unstable position last weekend.
"It has come to the municipality's attention that there is a dangerous plot against the executive mayor who also happens to be the ANC regional chairperson.
"The timing of the smear campaign comes when the ANC regional conference is only three weeks away before the much-awaited 2016 local government elections," she said.
Mofokeng is also chairman of the ANC in Sedibeng, a large municipality campaigning to be a Metro municipality after the 2016 local government elections.
Sedibeng is a currently made up of three local municipalities - Emfuleni, Lesedi and Midvaal but the Municipal Demarcation Board announced last year plans to merge Emfuleni and Midvaal into a single metro municipality.
Mofokeng is originally from the Free State and has been at the helm of the ANC in Sedibeng for over a decade.
The regional executive committee of the ANC in Sedibeng is bound to undergo changes when the party holds its elective regional conference scheduled to take place on 30 November.
See the Daily Sun mobi site for more on this and other stories....
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