Johannesburg - The executive committee (exco) meeting of the troubled eThekwini Municipality had to be postponed on Tuesday after councillors from opposition parties walked out and left the meeting at Durban City Hall.
This comes amid the announcement last week by the African National Congress (ANC) Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) to redeploy the party's executive committee members, including embattled former Mayor Zandile Gumede over poor performance.
Acting eThekwini Mayor Fawzia Peer remains acting in the position until a replacement is announced. She assured residents that the collapse of Tuesday's exco meeting and the decision by the ANC PEC will not affect the everyday functioning on the City.
"Members of the public can rest assured that service delivery has not been impeded or affected by the postponement of the executive committee meeting, with executive members still acting in their respective portfolios until Council processes are followed for them to be redeployed," Peer said.
"The Council and administration are still fully functional. In the past seven days, all the subcommittee scheduled meetings did take place. I would like to reassure residents that the transition does not have any negative impact on service delivery.
But there are already fears that if another exco meeting scheduled for next week Tuesday does not quorate, service delivery in eThekwini will be affected as some projects need council approval before they can go ahead.
But Peer said there will be a full Council meeting on Thursday next week where she hopes decisions will be made, adding that redeployment was a process and the ANC should be allowed space for them to make these decisions.