Council convened to swear in the councillors who will be running the city for the next five years, as well as the mayor, chief whip and speaker of council.
The proceedings ended with the ANC taking these three tops seats with Clr Patricia Kumalo being elected as speaker of council, Clr Mzwandile Masina as mayor and Clr Jongizizwe Dlabathi was named chief whip.
While waiting for proceedings to begin on Tuesday morning, the ANC councillors were heard singing, 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, chief whip 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 IDs, 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 the DA.
Shortly before 3pm Clr Patricia Kumalo 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 poorest of the poor,” Kumalo said.
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 presided over the election to see who would succeed Mondli Gungubele as mayor.
Names brought forward for election were Clr Mzwandile Masina of the ANC, while the DA put forward Clr Ghaleb Cachalia.
The result of the votes was 117 votes for Masina and 106 for Cachalia.
There was again one spoiled vote.
Masina in his address thanked South Africans for deepening democracy by voting in the recent local government elections.
“Thank you for ensuring that this freedom for which many of our stalwarts paid the ultimate price is appreciated.
“People of Ekurhuleni, as the ANC-lead government, we recommit to serve you.
“In taking forward the agenda of improving general living standards in Ekurhuleni, we will continue to give critical attention to quality service delivery,” he says.
Votes for chief whip of council were also dominated by the ANC with Clr Jongizizwe Dlabathi taking the lead with 117 votes while the DA’s Tania Campbell scooped 107 votes.
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 last Friday and on Monday, respectively.
The DA took leadership of both these metros with Herman Mashaba being elected in Johannesburg and Solly Msimanga taking over in Tshwane.
