OPINION: It’s chaos as municipalities elect leadership

MOST municipalities had their inaugural meetings on Monday, 22 to elect new leadership. While some worked efficiently to elect their new leaders, others turned into boxing rings.

It was a smooth start for the eThekwini Municipality as there were live updates for citizens to see, and be a part of, the programme.

The new Speaker, Thabani  Nyawose was elected and was quick to preside over the meeting to continue with the election of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of eThekwini.

Also Read: eThekwini inaugural meeting ends prematurely

The meeting was adjourned yesterday afternoon due to a power failure at the venue where the election was  being held.  As if that was not enough, a group of disgruntled individuals barged into the venue, singing and pulling tables.

Clearly, they were not happy with what was transpiring and they wanted to cause a disruption. They succeeded. The City was quick to publish a statement on this and said it would investigate how the group was able to gain access to the venue.

“The municipality is investigating how the security controls were breached,” said the City in a statement. It also said Nyawose would reconvene the meeting in due course.

See what happened:

The most wild events happened in the #ethekwini municipality. Disruptions and eventually a “power outage”.

It seems some people were committed to preventing the vote by any means necessary. pic.twitter.com/AgCNCR1J1Z

— Africa Research Desk (@MightiJamie) November 23, 2021

Some other municipalities that also had to abruptly adjourn council meetings due to chaos and fists fights include the

Alfred Duma Municipality:

https://twitter.com/iam_khehla/status/1462853799920422913

The UMhlathuze Municipality:

The ANC has opted to walk out of proceedings at uMhlathuze municipality as IFP Dr Nkonzoyakhe Donda was elected unopposed as Mayor. pic.twitter.com/ahKdVw02yk

— 1KZNTV News (@1KZNtvNews) November 23, 2021