DURBAN – The first council meeting in uMuziwabantu Municipality sat without problems on Monday.
The municipal Speaker Victor Mbatha said the council meeting went very well and the opposition voted together for the Municipal Public Accounts Committee position which went to the EFF.
There were fears that the coalition would not last since the DA made it clear that it would never work with the ANC.
In the 21-seat council in Harding, the ANC got 10 seats, followed by the IFP with five, the EFF and Al Jama-ah received two seats each, while the DA and the ABC got one seat each.
During the inaugural council meeting the IFP, together with small parties, had agreed to form a coalition against the ANC and share positions. The IFP was apparently supposed to take the mayoral position and give other positions to coalition partners.
Mbatha was successfully elected as speaker but during the break, the ANC apparently received a vote from one of the opposition councillors and its mayoral candidate Sbo Zungu was elected. Deputy mayor’s position went to Al Jama-ah's Mondli Ncayiyana.
Meanwhile, ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is expected to take a decision on who should be mayor in the Ray Nkonyeni Municipality in Port Shepstone. The PEC had confirmed to the Daily News on Monday morning that it would discuss the matter at its meeting which began on Monday morning.
The municipality had not been able to elect the mayor, deputy as well as chief whip because ANC councillors were divided on who should be mayor, between Sikhumbuzo “Zero” Mqadi and Sibusiso Shange.
Both councillors were called for interviews but the panel chose Shange ahead of Mqadi, but Mqadi’s supporters are opposed to Shange’s appointment and threatened to allow the opposition to take the municipality if he was not appointed. A councillor in Mqadi’s camp said they would take branches’ mandate which was for Mqadi to be mayor.
“We have been voted by branches to be here so we cannot go against their mandate. The issue is not about us a councillors, but it is the branches that want Mqadi to be mayor,“ said the councillor.
Daily News