Durban - A toss of the coin will determine who becomes the Speaker between the ANC and IFP at Jozini Local Municipality, in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
This comes after the council could not elect a Speaker during voting on Wednesday – for the second time after the inaugural meeting last week.
On both occasions, the nominees for the position had obtained 20 votes apiece.
The ANC had initially won 19 seats in the municipality during the recent local government elections, with their 20th vote coming through the backing of an independent candidate.
The IFP had amassed 18 votes and through their coalition with the DA and EFF, who had a seat apiece, managed to get their 20 votes.
This was confirmed by KZN Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) spokesmaon Msawakhe Mayisela while speaking to the Daily News on Wednesday.
Mayisela said the Speaker would be elected through a coin toss or a draw, and should this fail to determine a winner, he said a provincial executive would then intervene to find a way forward and bring an end to the stalemate.
ANC provincial spokesman, Mdumiseni Ntuli, said Tuesday’s meeting had not “gone well” for them because there had been a deadlock between them and the IFP. Frustrated by the outcome of the election for the municipality’s Speaker, Ntuli said it was clear “we are not going anywhere with that municipality”.
“The law allows for a deadlock situation to be resolved by a coin toss, and that is how it could be decided. However, as the ANC, we believe that a municipality with leaders chosen by the toss of a coin will be engulfed by instability forever,” Ntuli said.
Ntuli said a resolution could be reached next week, despite Mayisela having said the coin tossing would go ahead on Friday.
According to DA provincial leader, Zwakele Mcnwango, the ANC had not returned to the meeting after having asked to caucus to discuss a way forward after the resulting deadlock in Tuesday’s election.
He said the meeting could not proceed to the authorised coin toss when the ANC did not return to the meeting. Mncwango described it as the “ANC running away from taking responsibility”.
“The ANC is not willing to go for the coin toss and this shows that politicians are too preoccupied with positions instead of service delivery, because through avoiding the coin toss they are affecting service delivery to the people of Jozini,” Mncwango said.
He said he had engaged with both the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and the COGTA ME, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, on the steps that should have been taken after voting had produced a tie. Mncwango said that by law a coin toss was the next step, with a by-election being the last resort.
The IFP’s national chairman, Blessed Gwala, said he could not comment because he had not yet been briefed on the latest developments in Jozini.