Residents suffer as councillors jostle for top posts

Service delivery problems continue to pile up as warring councillors in the Ekurhuleni council jostle for positions, with the different political parties at loggerheads over who should run the metro.

The metro’s administrative office and the mayor’s office have repeatedly warned that the political struggle among political parties in council could cause the municipality to fail to carry out its constitutional obligations and worsen the situation in the already battling departments.

Ekurhuleni Mayor Tania Campbell pointed out that the breakdowns of council meetings meant council, the highest decision-making structure in the local government, cannot pass resolutions on service delivery projects, including the much-needed budget adjustment to allow the city to properly render services such as the purchasing of resources, paying service providers and other public services.

Late last year, municipal managers ran their portfolios without the necessary oversight of council for about two weeks, and the political vacuum in the city reportedly worsened the already crippled delivery of services.

Among several pressing issues, the city is dealing with bad roads and streetlight maintenance, the lack of grass-cutting services, the crumbling electricity infrastructure, and problems with solid waste management, including garbage collection and overflowing dumpsites that face closure.

Overturned
Meanwhile, the mayor welcomed the high court ruling that overturned the illegal council meeting, which saw the ANC and EFF councillors voted to top positions in what has been declared an ‘illegal, extraordinary council sitting’, convened by the city manager.

The ruling came after the removal of the speaker of council, Raymond Dhlamini, following the collapse of the metro’s first council meeting on February 2.
The special meeting, which was marred by arguments, was delayed for seven hours because political parties were fighting over what to give priority among the motions listed on the agenda.

Vote of no confidence
The EFF and ANC wanted the vote of no confidence in the speaker of council and to fill the position of council whip after the resignation of Khetha Shandu to take priority.

However, the speaker insisted on addressing items as listed on the agenda.
That led to a lengthy argument, resulting in the meeting being collapsed after the parties failed to agree on a way forward.
However, after the speaker and other councillors had walked out, the Ekurhuleni city manager Dr Imogen Mashazi was immediately called in to reconvene the meeting, which then ran until late.
During the reconvened meeting, the tabled motion of no confidence against the speaker saw Dhlamini voted out in absentia by 126 councillors from the EFF, ANC, and several smaller parties, including IRASA.

EFF councillor Nthabiseng Tshivhenga was elected as the interim speaker of council. The initial plan was that she would remain in the position until a new speaker was appointed.
However, this changed after Dhlamini filed court actions to have the illegal processes declared invalid.

Shandu had already resigned a day before the February 2 special meeting. The leader of the ANC caucus Jongizizwa Dlabathi was elected as the acting whip of council after the resignation of the whip.

Reinstated
The court ruling meant Dhlamini was reinstated and the appointed acting speaker and chief whip returned to their previous positions in council.
The spokesperson for the mayor Warren Gwilt said Dhlamini would return to his office and start making arrangements for the next council sitting.

Gwilt said the speaker is likely to call an extraordinary council meeting or deal with the outstanding issues during the regular council meeting this month.

Put residents first
“Now that the court has overturned the illegal outcomes of February 2, it is crucial that all political parties represented in council put residents first and allow the processes of council to take place at the next council meeting.
“The urgent business of council, which has now been stalled twice, will bring about much relief to residents of the city, chief among them the adjustment budget for service delivery,” said the mayor in a statement.

On the other hand, the DA accused the ANC, EFF and smaller parties of not working in the interests of the people but ganging up against the DA-led multi-party coalition government to get positions and access to resources.

Incapable of running the city
Our sister publication, Springs Advertiser, reported that during the January 2 council meeting, the leader of the Super Seven who tabled the motion, Joe Mojapelo from the Independent Citizens Movement, said the two councillors were not fit to hold office and had proven their incapabilities in the 13 months they held office.

Meanwhile, the EFF’s Nkululeko Dunga reportedly said council was forced to evoke section 29 1A.
“We had written to the speaker urging him to reconvene a meeting, but he refused to force us to write to the city manager.
“His actions prove that his plans for the day were not to see the meeting through as the IEC were not in council to conduct the election,” said Dunga.

The ANC’s Dlabathi said many attempts were made to convince the speaker that the motions were admissible, but he took a decision outside the programming committee.
“The will of the majority has prevailed. They can take the council decisions to court if they feel disgruntled,” he said.

Negotiated takeover plan
A source in the municipality, who asked not to be named, told the Advertiser that the removal of the speaker and the chief whip was planned to make way for the proposed motion of no confidence against the mayor.

“Remember that the mayor survived the November motion when she was re-elected with the support of the EFF. After this motion, the ANC-EFF coalition talks started. After all that they agreed on, a plan was devised to replace the speaker and the chief whip with councillors who will prioritise dealing with the motion of no confidence against the mayor.

“But, by law, there has to be a cooling-off period between motions of no confidence. So, the plan was to get the right people in these two positions now so that they can, when the right time comes, preside over the meeting to vote on the next motion of no confidence against her.
“Although the dynamics keep on changing among the involved parties, I know that the EFF and ANC councillors are eyeing the top positions in the metro,” explained the source.

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