Pretoria -The ANC in Ekurhuleni was the biggest loser during the council vote for the mayor yesterday.
The EFF used its kingmaker’s status in the municipality to re-elect Tania Campbell of the DA as mayor less than three weeks after the red berets played an instrumental role in her removal.
Yesterday, the EFF – which abstained in the vote of no confidence against Campbell on October 26 – turned its back on the ANC after the party refused to endorse its provincial party leader, Nkululeko Dunga, as mayor-elect.
The EFF and ANC had been engaged in a series of meetings since the mayoral seat became vacant.
Last week, a special council meeting could not elect a mayor after some of the ANC councillors defied their provincial leaders over the nomination of Dunga minutes after the former mayor, Mzwandile Masina, withdrew from the race.
Masina was in favour of Dunga’s nomination, but his fellow councillors resisted and wanted his deputy, Jongizizwe Dlabathi, who is the ANC chief whip, to become the new mayor.
Due to the divisions, the ANC asked for a postponement of the election until a truce was found with the EFF.
However, drama unfolded in the council chambers yesterday when the EFF nominated Dunga as mayor-elect while the ANC chose Dlabathi. The DA also nominated Campbell in what looked like to be a three-horse race, but it was not to be.
The EFF surprisingly withdrew its nomination and put its “kingmaker’s weight” behind Campbell, who was reinstated mayor after securing 124 votes to Dlabathi’s 99 votes. One of the councillors abstained from voting.
Last month, the ANC obtained 100 votes to oust Campbell as mayor after the DA only managed to secure 93 votes. The EFF abstained with its 31 votes but turned the tables against the ANC and reinstated Campbell, whom it had accused of having ignored providing services to black communities.
At the time, it also blamed the DA’s federal council leader, Helen Zille, for the decision after she accused EFF leaders of being extortionists.
After her election, Campbell reportedly told the media: “It does show you there is confidence in me, but also it shows that the majority of council actually wants work to happen and wants stability within the city.”
The multi-party coalition in Ekurhuleni said in its joint statement that its victory arose from the inability of the ANC and EFF to come together in what would only be regarded as a blow to the ANC’s plans ahead of the 2024 provincial elections, and that most importantly, it arose from political parties sticking together to prevent a return of the ANC governance.
Coalition spokesperson Corne Mulder said: “Parties in the multiparty coalition will now come together to see how this second opportunity can translate into better service delivery experienced by all residents of Ekurhuleni.
“Part of the work of the multiparty coalition must be efforts to ensure stability going forward, so that efforts to improve service delivery can take effect over sustained periods of time. While unexpectedly, we acknowledge the support of the EFF,” Mulder said.
In his reaction, Gauteng DA leader Solly Msimanga described the outcome as a poor attempt at political point scoring which had failed, saying that now the multi-party government could continue with the work it was doing “to fix what the ANC broke.”
“But these political shenanigans have come at a cost, a financial cost and a cost in terms of service delivery. Putting an entire metro on pause while back-room deals are done leaves residents neglected and uncertain as to what will happen next.
“Now that the ANC and its proxy parties are done playing, we will get back to working for the residents of this fine city,” Msimanga said.
At the time of publication, Ekurhuleni ANC was not available to comment.
Pretoria News