Council speaker announced
New Speaker of Council announced in Tuesday's council meeting.
The ANC exuded an air of confidence today (Tuesday) as the first council meeting, since the August 3 elections, kicked off.
Council convened to swear in the councillors who will be running the city for the next five years, as well as the mayor and speaker of council.
Shortly before 3pm Clr Patricia Kumalo, the ANC’s nomination, took her seat as the speaker of council.
She addressed council, thanking the members for the support she received.
“It gives me great pleasure to be elected again, I am humbled.
“I hope that we will work together to steer this ship in the correct direction.
“Let us make our communities proud and keep to our common goal of improving the quality of life for the poor of the poorest,” she says.
However, the EFF requested a caucus to discuss this announcement and the way forward.
The ANC councillors were heard singing while waiting for the official proceedings to begin on Tuesday morning, while members of other parties remained quietly seated.
Proceedings began with the swearing in of councillors by senior magistrate Dawray Muntaz.
Taking the top three spots in the chamber are the ANC with 106 seats, DA with 77 seats and 25 taken by the EFF.
The rest of the seats have been taken up by minority parties.
The IEC was on hand to help with the vote for speaker of council and mayor and, having set up voting booths in the council chambers, the IEC oversaw the proceedings.
However, before any votes could be cast a fiery discussion ensued to debate whether councillors would have to present identification in order to vote.
Having ruled the voters roll would be used, without the need for ID, voting proceeded with all votes for speaker of council having being cast by 2pm.
The nominees for the position were Kumalo of the ANC and Springs’ Shadow Shabangu of DA.
The result of the vote, with 224 people having their say, was 117 votes to Kumalo and 106 to Shabangu.
There was one spoiled vote.
Once announced, the newly elected speaker was set to preside over the election of the new mayor.
However, this vote could not go ahead until after the caucus and any matters arising from it.
This vote, to see who will succeed Mondli Gungubele as mayor, will proceed later today.
Other metros
Ekurhuleni was the last of the Gauteng metros to hold an inaugural council meeting after Tshwane and the City of Johannesburg metros held theirs on Friday and Monday, respectively.
The DA took leadership of both these metros with Herman Mashaba being elected in Johannesburg and Solly Msimanga taking over in Tshwane.
