In a strange turn of events the ANC's Elphas Mbatha was re-elected by secret ballot as Speaker of the uMhlathuze (Empangeni/Richards Bay) local council on Tuesday night, soon after being ousted from his top council post by a show of hands.
After a lengthy debate over his proposed axing, characterised by a few heated exchanges, the 60-member council voted 30-28 in favour of a motion by IFP councillor Ivan Barnes for Mbatha's removal from office.
Mbatha was then nominated by Deputy Mayor Celiwe Madlopha, of the ANC, to fill the vacancy, while Bheki Gumede, of Nadeco, was proposed by the IFP alliance for the post.
This time voting was required to be done by secret ballot and after a tense few minutes of counting, ANC councillors and supporters burst into song and dance and shouted for joy when Mbatha was returned as Speaker. This after the voting swung 31-29 in his favour.
After order was restored in the council chamber, Mbatha thanked councillors for supporting him, and said his responsibility as Speaker was to see to it that the council was united.
"This council needs leadership and I am committed to ensuring that it works in a (unified) manner and deals with the very serious challenges of local economic development and see that jobs are created for the many, many people who have no jobs. That cannot happen if we are not united.
"We need to work together, all of us, black and white, Indian and coloured.
"We must make efforts to ensure that the divisions of the past are done away with and that we recognise the challenges that our people have."
The DA wished Mbatha a good term of office, while IFP Mayor Denny Moffatt also congratulated him, saying his party was prepared to support him in his position.
He hoped the behaviour in the council chamber would become calm, collected and focused. "We need to drive our economy. We look forward to going forward with a happier council under your control."
At an earlier executive committee meeting, councillors agreed to appoint external auditors to investigate claims by the ANC alliance of corruption and poor service provision in the municipality.
During an ANC alliance protest march to the civic centre in Richards Bay last Friday, the ANC's North Coast Region called for a forensic probe to "unearth corrupt practices".
Audit
Matters highlighted in a memorandum to the council's management were raised at the exco meeting by Municipal Manager Tonie Heyneke, who suggested that auditors be appointed to investigate and report back and, where necessary, carry out a forensic audit.
He said all the ANC's allegations were "capable of immediate solution". "The facts are all there, it's not as though any of them must be unearthed. I don't expect any forensic investigations to be done. I think the auditors will be able to deal with this purely on a report basis," he said.
Moffatt suggested the costs of the investigation - which could run into hundreds of thousands of rands - be "charged back" to the ANC if nothing irregular was found.