EFF leader Julius Malema said his party will not vote with the ANC in a motion of no confidence against Ekurhuleni mayor Tania Campbell.
The motion was proposed by ANC councillor Khehla Madlala amid the party accusing Campbell of neglecting townships and channelling resources to suburbs.
Speaking during the third EFF Western Cape Provincial Peoples’ Assembly on Saturday, Malema admitted that he is friends with Ekurhuleni ANC chairperson Mzwandile Masina. However, he said his party would not vote with the ANC.
“The EFF does not want to vote for the ANC in Ekurhuleni ... it will never happen. We will not vote with the ANC because I am friends with Masina. We are not going to use those tools of analysis to determine how things go in Ekurhuleni,” Malema said
The ANC last week wrote a letter to the speaker of council, Raymond Dhlamini. The motion is scheduled to be tabled during an ordinary council meeting on October 26.
According to Madlala, at the inception of her political term the mayor failed to meet the 14-day deadline to establish the mayoral committee.
“The mayor has failed to ensure proper consideration of public inputs in the development and final compilation of the municipal plans, budget and related policies by contravening her function as contemplated in section 56(b) and (c), in that she coerced the finalisation of an integrated development plan/budget without evaluating and incorporating the considerable public views and priority needs,” said the party..
The ANC further said: “The mayor’s failure to address the community of Tembisa, as per her ‘initial promise’, has led to the total looting and burning of the Tembisa customer care centre in Rabasotho, and this will cost the city millions of rand to repair and restore. Furthermore, this has led to a costly protest that resulted in the killing of two civilians by Ekurhuleni metro police department officers who were not trained for crowd control.”
Dhlamini confirmed to ‘The Star’ that they had received the motion of no confidence that was brought forward against Campbell.
“Next Thursday, we will be sitting on a programming to confirm and check indeed that the motion complies with the standing order. If indeed it does, then it will go to council and it will be debated there,” said Dhlamini.
The EFF denied claims that the party was in talks with the ANC. When asked if DA would be in coalition talks with the EFF, DA Gauteng chairperson Fred Nel said their leader had made a promise that they were not going to go into any coalition arrangements with the EFF, and therefore there was no reason to reach out to the party.
“We will continue to govern in the interest of the people of Ekurhuleni. We will make sure that we speak to coalition partners and other parties within the council to try and retain the majority. If the motion is carried legally, then of course we will abide by the will of the council,” said Nell.
EFF Gauteng chairperson Nkululeko Dunga said the party had not been engaged by any organisation regarding the imminent motion. “As an organisation guided by specific non-negotiable principles, amongst and at the core being the expropriation of land without compensation to allow the allocation of land for housing and business from local government level, building of internal state capacity to insource workers and abolish tenders, provision of free sanitation and housing, and massive protected industrial development which entails the establishment of local-based industrial businesses to provide jobs for residents and bring in economic activities within the municipality,” Dunga said.
He added that in Ekurhuleni, black-populated communities remained neglected by the DA-led administration regarding service delivery.
“The EFF in Gauteng can never be caught in wrestling matches for positions while our people continue to be pushed to the side and neglected by both the DA and ANC-led governments,” Dunga said.