Durban - Former KZN Transport MEC, Mxolisi Kaunda has been appointed mayor of the eThekwini Municipality. His deputy will be former MEC for Finance, Belinda Scott.
In Pietermaritzburg, (Msunduzi) the ANC has appointed Mzimkhulu Thobella as mayor and Manillall Indurjith as deputy mayor.
The sweeping changes were made late on Thursday after a marathon session at the ANC provincial offices.
Earlier this month, the ANC in KZN fired the entire eThekwini Municipality executive committee including mayor Zandile Gumede and her deputy, Fawzia Peer. The party also axed Msunduzi mayor, Themba Njilo. The party said they were being "redeployed".
The party’s media briefing had been delayed for over three hours with the leadership held up in a meeting trying to find a middle ground among the two sides.
The party was supposed to be announcing its mayoral candidates for various provincial municipalities including eThekwini and Msunduzi.
The provincial office has called a media briefing for 11.30 this morning. After an hour, party provincial spokesperson Ricardo Mthembu addressed the media apologising for the delay.
"We apologise for the unforeseen delay. It's just that we are finalising a few municipalities hence the apology. We propose that the briefing to start at 1 pm," Mthembu said.
A few minutes after 1pm the party’s media liaison officer Bongani Mthethwa came with another apology saying that the briefing would start at 2pm.
Unconfirmed reports are that the delays are caused by the disagreement between the leadership about candidates for eThekwini and Msunduzi Municipalities.