Durban - The national top six of the ANC was for the better part of Monday locked in a meeting with the top of the ANC in KZN getting their side of the story regarding the issue of eThekwini mayor, Zandile Gumede.
On Wednesday last week Gumede surprised many when she withdrew her resignation as mayor after she was advised that the process followed was flawed. Prior to that, Gumede had petitioned the national top six alleging that she was being unfairly removed from office. She also met with the secretary general, Ace Magashule to state her case.
As the top six meet with the provincial leadership led by Sihle Zikalala, the backers of Gumede expect the top six to charge the provincial leadership if found to have acted outside their scope of powers when removing the embattled mayor.
If found to have violated no law of the party, Mzomuhle Dube, the spokesperson of the backers of Gumede, said they will also write to the top six to clarify whether or not it has become a norm for the provincial leadership to remove mayors of big cities.
“If the top six says the provincial leadership acted unlawfully they must charge them. Again, if they said there was nothing wrong with their decision, then we will be happy to be told that this is now normal,” Dube said.
Mayors of metros and other big cities are normally appointed by the national offices after getting recommendations from the provinces where they cities are.
Dube said since the meeting would run until late on Monday, they expected to have a clear picture on Tuesday morning.
“I don’t think we will know what happened today because the top six meeting will run until very late.”
On Sunday, the spokesperson of the ANC in KZN, Ricardo Mthembu, insisted to Independent Media that the party’s councillors in eThekwini would on Wednesday elect Mxolisi Kaunda as new mayor of eThekwini, replacing Gumede.
Kaunda would be deputised by former KZN finance MEC, Belinda Scott and the speaker would be another former MEC, Weziwe Thusi.