The City of Ekurhuleni’s November 2 council meeting, called to elect a new mayor, was adjourned until next week after it was marred by a four-hour delay, resulting in one of the political parties raising an issue of quorum.
The sitting had to be abandoned around lunchtime after several last-minute caucuses and contentious coalition talks between the EFF and the ANC yielded no outcome.
The extraordinary council meeting was called to elect a new mayor to replace the DA’s Tania Campbell, who was ousted as mayor through a successful vote of no-confidence brought by the ANC on October 26. One hundred councillors voted in favour of the motion, while 93 voted against it.
Moments after the bell rang for the extraordinary council sitting to start at around 10:30, the ANC and EFF councillors requested to be granted 15 minutes to hold caucuses, to which the speaker agreed. Several other parties also left the chamber to caucus.
However, the talks between the ANC and EFF continued until lunchtime, with representatives of these parties, including EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu and the ANC’s provincial chairperson Panyaza Lesufi, locked in meetings for the larger part of the council sitting.
It was, however, reported that the EFF-ANC talks ended in a deadlock over who to back the new mayor.
Insiders told the Boksburg Advertiser that the EFF was pushing for its mayoral candidate, Nkululeko Dunga, to be elected with the support of the ANC.
However, the ANC was seemingly not happy with the idea of putting forward an EFF mayoral candidate.
The source also said the ANC wanted its regional deputy chairperson Jongizizwe Dlabathi as mayor but others within the ANC wanted the position too.
The councillors eventually reconvened at about 14:00. It was at that point that ICM councillor Joe Mojapelo proposed that the business of the day be postponed, as going ahead with the meeting would have breached the council’s standing orders.
With the raised issue of a quorum, all parties agreed to the adjournment and requested the speaker Raymond Dhlamini to use his powers to ensure that the election of the mayor is held at least within seven days.
Disappointed
Shortly after announcing the adjournment, Dhlamini and the council’s chief whip Khetha Shandu along with their legal team held a media briefing where Dhlamini explained that the decision to postpone the meeting was to avoid any legal disputes.
Dhlamini said while he was disappointed that the council failed to fulfil its business of the day, he was hopeful and would do his best to ensure another sitting to elect a mayor is held within seven days.
“I’m disappointed that we could not elect the mayor today and we apologise to the residents of Ekurhuleni. Let’s hope and let’s pray that we will be able to elect the new mayor in a few days.
“As agreed, within the next seven days we will call an extraordinary council meeting again,” he said.
The chief whip said taking into account the events that transpired at the meeting and the importance of it to the city, they needed to postpone.
“We did not want to run the risk of having this meeting being called to question and be taken to court where we will be found to be in the wrong.
“Hence, when the call was made, we supported the adjournment so that we have a fresh meeting to deal with the election of the mayor,” said Shandu.
Knock-on effect on service delivery
DA provincial leader Solly Msimanga said the ANC and EFF’s ‘political flip-flopping’ hampers the city’s mission to improve service delivery.
“The DA and our coalition partners have agreed and our councillors are very clear on how they are going to vote.
“Over and above that, we have said to the residents of Ekurhuleni, as much as we have said to the residents of the municipalities in Gauteng, what we promised you is what we are going to stick to,” he said.
“From the DA and its coalition partners’ perspective it’s not about positions, it’s about serving the people.
“This is why we said even if we get voted out democratically today, we will accept that and will serve from the opposition benches. We are here, we have strategies and we have put our point across whether we are voted out or this council collapses.
“The residents must then decide whether parties are willing to put them and their needs first or to put their factional battles and positions ahead of service delivery.”
Msimanga also pointed out the DA did not have any engagements with the EFF.
“We cannot engage with the EFF until certain things are resolved and that is something we are going to continue to hold on to.
“If you cannot denounce the issue of killing a particular race if you cannot denounce the issue of land grabs, then what is it that we are going to be talking about?”
Responding to questions about the delay, Msimanga said: “The question we should be asking is, why the two parties are not coming back into the meeting so that a mayor can be elected.
“The question you should be asking is if they were toy-toying and singing so confidently last week then why are they not showing the same confidence this week and today?
“The question you should be asking is, are the factional battles within the ANC the reason why the meeting is now hours late?
“Are they going to find each other with the EFF so that we can find a council that will provide service to the people?”
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