Finalising coalition talks just in time for the first KwaDukuza municipality (KDM) council meeting on Monday, the ANC managed to lay claim to all major positions.
After the postponement of last week’s council meeting during hectic coalition manoeuvring, a coalition with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), African Transformation Movement (ATM) and African Independence Party (AIC) ensured the ANC retained its majority.
Local coalitions were informed by national party leadership decisions that rose and fell over the past 2 weeks as uneasy partnerships were tentatively formed and broken.
The biggest about-face in coalition talks came when the ANC and IFP announced they would vote together.
This after the IFP stated they would not hold any coalition talks with the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
“It is not an official coalition, the parties just agreed to cede control of municipalities to each other where one had a clear majority. It came as a surprise, but we follow what national leadership instructs us,” said IFP PR councillor and municipal public accounts committee (MPAC) chair, Musa Sibisi.
The IFP may have been king makers in other KZN municipalities, but in KwaDukuza the support of the ATM and AIC with 1 seat each would have been enough to sway power to the ANC in any event.
As part of this coalition agreement, the IFP were given the MPAC chair, the AIC a seat in the Executive Committee and ATM a seat in the iLembe District Council.
ActionSA and the DA did vote together, with the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) joining on some votes, but it made little difference.
The major positions within council were all retained by ANC members.
The mayor is former speaker Lindi Nhaca, with former mayor Dolly Govender appointed speaker.
Thulani Ntuli is the deputy-mayor and Humphrey Mbatha the chief whip.
Any hopes of an 8-party opposition coalition were quickly quashed with the first election of the day when Govender won a comfortable victory.
Opposition coalition talks were ongoing as recently as Sunday, when party representatives met in Salt Rock for their fourth meeting.
The loss of the IFP’s 4 seats was the writing on the wall, however, with the Independent Alliance (IA) deciding to abstain from all votes and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) voting only for their own candidate.
“We had drawn up plans to give all parties representative positions. The mayor’s position would have been allocated to the DA, the deputy-mayor post to ActionSA, IA the speaker, IFP the chief whip and EFF the MPAC chair. We even planned to give the ATM, AIC and ACDP portfolio leaderships later on. Unfortunately, that did not come to pass,” said ActionSA caucus leader, Nel Sewraj.
In her inaugural address, mayor Nhaca emphasised the need for work to begin without delay.
“This is not a moment to celebrate, but rather to gather strength to deliver on our mandate to provide a better life for all residents of KwaDukuza,” she said.
Aside from Nhaca and Govender doing a leadership dance, the only other real surprise came when a man purporting to be an EFF councillor had to be escorted out while trying to take his oath of office.
Elsewhere in iLembe, Mandeni re-elected mayor Thabani Mdlalose, with deputy going to Bhekithemba Magwaza and Phindile Sishi as speaker.
In Ndwedwe, Samual Mzamo Mfeka was elected mayor, Zandile Siwetu as deputy and Mduduzi Cele as speaker.
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