Council sittings descended into chaos on Monday with the Ekurhuleni mayor only being elected late in the day and only a speaker being voted in in eThekwini despite having an early start.
Proceedings at both, which started at 10am, were marred by power outages, objections, interjections and countless points of order after the return from lunch.
In the coastal metro, a huge power outage halted proceedings at 6pm, while in the industrial hub of Ekurhuleni the sitting experienced a two-hour power outage, necessitating the use of generators.
“This is what happens when people are about to lose power,” said newly elected Ekurhuleni speaker Raymond Dlamini from the podium during complaints from the ANC caucus, who accused the EFF of taking photographs of ballot papers. This was in contravention of the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) rules.
The DA’s Dlamini received 116 votes ahead of the 104 votes for the ANC’s Dorah Mambo, with two spoilt votes and one abstention. Shortly afterwards, the DA's Tania Campbell was elected as mayor with 116 votes.
Though coalition talks between the DA, EFF and ActionSA collapsed during the 14-day period given to political parties to form coalitions in hung municipalities after the elections, it is highly likely that members from both ActionSA and the EFF voted for those DA candidates who emerged victorious in Ekurhuleni.
Combined, the DA (86 seats), ActionSA (15 seats), EFF (31 seats) and Freedom Front Plus (8 seats) make up more than the 50+1% required for a majority vote in selecting mayors and speakers.
In eThekwini the ANC nabbed a landslide win for the position of speaker, with its councillor Thabani Nyawose receiving the nod from 103 of the 199 councillors who voted, edging out the DA’s Thabani Mthetwa with 63 and Abantu Batho Congress’ (ABC) Philani Mavundla with 33 votes.
However, before the eThekwini mayor could be elected, about 40 people trashed council chambers when it become clear that the deal struck with the IFP had collapsed. The toyi-toying group overturned tables and chairs. At the end of the day, proceedings were adjourned to an unspecified date, with the city announcing they were unexpectedly halted due to the continuing power outage.
The ANC’s deal with the IFP failed to materialise after some IFP councillors said they had a change of heart and voted for the DA’s Nicole Graham for mayor and not the ANC’s Mxolisi Kaunda.
Elsewhere in the province the trend was the same — the IFP working with the DA and others and not the ANC. This included Newcastle, Umvoti and Richards Bay where the IFP appeared to be consolidating its position with the DA.
In eThekwini the voting that did take place was held under the watchful eye of the IEC and party agents in a tent set up next to Moses Mabhida Stadium.
The province used to be the IFP’s traditional stronghold, but the ANC has dominated the polls in eThekwini over the past decade. However, this time around the ANC failed to get the required number of seats for an outright win. In 2016, it won 126 seats.
Correction: November 23 2021
Due to an editing error made in Johannesburg an earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Mxolisi Kaunda was elected as mayor of eThekwini. Business Day regrets the error.
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