Durban – The extent of the partnership between the ANC and the smaller parties who voted with the ANC in last week's council meeting is to be made clear in the coming days, with the announcement of which parties will chair the different committees in the eThekwini Municipality.
A meeting between the ANC and the smaller parties is expected on Wednesday, and next week announcements would be made.
The ANC is set to hand over the chairmanship of some of its council committees to a variety of smaller parties, following a deal that allowed the ruling party to retain control of the municipality.
The party came within a whisker of losing control of the municipality after other parties, including the DA, IFP, EFF and ActionSA banded together to vote against the ANC.
But the smaller parties came to the rescue of the ANC.
The ANC has already ceded the position of deputy mayor, with Philani Mavundla, president of Abantu Botho Congress, taking the position.
Mavundla is expected to chair the Infrastructure and human settlements committee. In the recent past, deputy mayors have chaired the security and emergency services committee.
He declined to speak on the reason he chose the infrastructure committee, saying the appointment was not official yet.
“I would be in the position to speak about this once there has been an official announcement next week,” he said.
He said there are ongoing negotiations and those needed to be handled delicately and not cause offence to anyone.
Similar sentiments were shared by leader of the ADeC Visvin Reddy who said there would be engagements with the ANC on the positions on Wednesday and the matter was sensitive.
He is part of the smaller parties that voted with the ANC.
Reddy has stated before that the votes for the ANC by the smaller parties came with conditions.
He told The Mercury last week that they expected that key posts like the chairperson of municipal public accounts committee, as well as the chairperson of the ethics committee, would go to the smaller parties that have partnered with the ANC.
He said this would also serve to hold the ANC accountable as the governing party.
THE MERCURY