Durban - The Newcastle Municipality on Wednesday finally managed to convene it's inaugural council meeting to elect the top office bearers.
The meeting, which was due to be held on Monday had to be aborted after African National Congress councillors failed without reason to pitch up.
Makhosini Nkosi was elected mayor while Dudu Sibiya was elected deputy mayor and former Amajuba District Mayor Jabu Khumalo was voted in as speaker.
No reason was officially given for the failure of the ANC councillors to turn up, and the party's regional secretary Ntokozo Mhlungu denied reports that there was infighting in the party's ranks. “The issue of the postponement of the council and tensions within the ANC are two separate things,” he said. “As the ANC we understand that we are the majority party in that municipality, we felt it was going to be unfair if the rights of the minority parties are not being taken into consideration as there were some parties, for reasons known to them, were not present.”
It was not known which minority parties he was referring to since the Democratic Alliance, Inkatha Freedom Party and the lone Freedom Front Plus councillors were all present at Monday's failed meeting.
DA constituency leader for the Amajuba District, Dr Imran Keeka, who attended Monday's failed meeting rejected Mhlungu's claim that some opposition parties were not in attendance.
“That is an absolute lie. We were all there. The DA, the IFP, the Vryheid's Front, a party called Royal Locals as well as another one,” he said.
All three office bearers elected on Wednesday were elected unopposed.
African News Agency