Cape Town - While metros around the country are still ironing out impasses over hung councils, the City of Cape Town inaugurated its new council on Thursday.
The DA is now in its third term in Cape Town winning last week’s elections by a two-thirds majority and paving the way for Patricia de Lille to start her second term as mayor.
She is the first mayor to serve a full term and be re-elected since the formation of the unicity 16 years ago.
DA councillors sang: "We are ready for 2019," as the city manager Achmat Ebrahim placed the chain around De Lille's neck.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane and former DA leaders Western Cape Premier Helen Zille and Tony Leon watched from the public gallery.
"It's good to be back at the podium. I've been humbled by the election result and the endorsement of this government by the people of Cape Town," said De Lille.
For the first time the EFF entered the Cape Town chamber on Thursday as the second largest opposition party after the ANC, with seven seats.
In their traditional red overalls and hard hats, they immediately made their presence known with Andrew Arnolds asking how many nominations each party was allowed to make for the position of Speaker.
“I believe there are people in the DA who are not happy about the number of nominations,” he said.
Arnolds is no stranger to the council.
He was once the deputy mayor when the ACDP joined forces with the DA to take control of the city 10 years ago.
The EFF also objected to the rules of council saying the party had had no input in drafting them.
Taking the chair for his third term as Speaker, Dirk Smit pledged as his first order of business to refer the rules to the rules committee so that the EFF could debate them.
Smit has held the position since 2006 as a member of the Freedom Front Plus, before joining the DA.
Councils have 10 days from the declaration of election results to convene their first meeting.
Cape Argus