Durban — After his unceremonious removal from his deputy mayoral position by the ANC-led eThekwini Municipality Council, indications are that Philani Mavundla is joining the DA-led bloc.
The Abantu Batho Congress party founder was spotted at an undisclosed restaurant having tea with the DA’s provincial chairperson Dean Macpherson.
Although both leaders down-played their meeting and refused to divulge the details of their discussion, a source within the DA said Mavundla asked the DA about its thoughts on his removal from the deputy mayor’s position.
Macpherson is said to have told him that a party caucus was best placed to give a view, adding that as the province they would listen to the caucus first.
Macpherson refused to comment and said it was just a party leaders’ meeting, nothing more. Mavundla too gave a diplomatic answer, saying it was a coincidence since he bumped into Macpherson and then decided to sit at the same table.
“I just bumped into him, that is all. What was I going to discuss with the DA at the restaurant during the holidays?” Mavundla asked.
With two weeks left for the council to hold its monthly meeting, where the deputy mayor’s and chief whip’s positions would be filled, informal horse-trading and lobbying are said to be taking place between parties in both the ANC and DA-led blocs.
This publication was reliably informed that the ANC provincial executive committee would meet this week, and also meet the regional leadership, to discuss appointments to the vacant positions.
The source said the two meetings would be followed by one with the small parties bloc that was in coalition with the ANC, where the ANC was expected to offer one of the positions to them.
However, ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo refused to be drawn to the matter, saying he did not know anything about it. “The indication was that the ANC might give one of the positions to the small parties to strengthen its relationship with them.
“You will recall that small parties ended up not getting anything after the ANC refused to support them to take the Mpac (Municipal Public Accounts Committee) chairperson (position), so the ANC still owes small parties,” said the source.
Instead of giving it to small parties, the ANC supported an EFF candidate, a party which was not in the bloc.
The DA’s eThekwini caucus leader, Thabani Mthethwa, said he was unable to say whether his party would field candidates for the positions since the caucus had not met and discussed it.
He added that his party, as the biggest in the city, always had an interest in who would lead the city, adding that the DA was clear that the ANC was not the right party to govern eThekwini.
The municipality’s chief whip, Thembo Ntuli, who is also the ANC’s regional acting chairperson, said his party did not believe its relationship with Mavundla was irreparably damaged after he was removed from office.
Ntuli said by filing a motion of no confidence against him, the ANC was answering many calls from almost all parties in the city, which were asking the ANC to remove him.
“We do not think Mavundla has left our coalition bloc. I think we can still work with him; maybe we can still find another position for him, who knows,” said Ntuli.
One of the members of the small parties bloc who spoke on condition of anonymity said they had not yet been approached by the ANC with regard to that matter, but as the coalition partner they were expecting a meeting.
After losing his court battle against the ANC-led council, Mavundla said he would return to the opposition benches as an ordinary councillor to be the voice of the voiceless, but was not clear which bloc he would belong to.
Daily News