Ekurhuleni mayor gives EFF MMC the boot

Financial problems within Johannesburg’s East Rand municipality have cost Nkululeko Dunga his job.

Ekurhuleni mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza has announced that he would be removing the MMC for Finance, citing unforeseen misalignments.

Xhakaza stated on Wednesday that the move was aimed at securing the city’s precarious financial position, which the council hoped to achieve with the completion and approval of the upcoming budget.

“We appreciate MMC Dunga’s contribution and wish him well in his future endeavours,” stated Xhakaza in a brief written send-off.

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Incumbent MMC for City Planning and Economic Development Nomadlozi Nkozi will take over in the interim. She is also the Chairperson of both the Governance and Economic Mayoral Cluster and the Budget Steering Committee.

ANC’s regional office back move

Ekurhuleni ANC regional task team coordinator Jongizizwe Dlabathi called the move a justifiable decision.

He said that a recent governance update report revealed fundamental weaknesses in the formulation of the upcoming budget.

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Additionally, he noted the municipality’s poor financial position had been a cause for concern for some time, and that opportunities to rectify the situation had been wasted.

“We firmly believe that every member of the mayoral committee must be committed to a co-ordinated way of governance, under the guidance of the executive mayor, including accountability, which was not the case,” stated Dlabathi.

eThekwini Mayor recalled

Elsewhere, the shifting political sands appear to have swallowed the first local victim.

Mayor of eThekwini Mxolisi Kaunda was recalled by the ANC on Wednesday, but looks set to be redeployed to the National Council of Provinces.

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ActionSA, who will have six seats in the seventh parliament, took Kaunda’s removal as a signal of ANC and DA collusion.

“It is clear that the DA needed reasons to donate their votes to help President [Cyril] Ramaphosa and the ANC. This decision by the ANC is a mere stunt aimed at nursing the DA’s ego, using Kaunda as a sacrificial lamb to pave the way for a closer relationship between the two parties,” stated Zwakele Mncanwango, ActionSA’s KZN provincial chairperson.

The seventh parliament will hold its first sitting on Friday, 14 June, to elect the speaker, deputy speaker and president.