Durban - THE vacant position of deputy mayor in the eThekwini Municipality is expected to be filled during a special council meeting scheduled for next week.
Council will hold a special meeting on January 26 for the purpose. This will be followed by an ordinary meeting of council on January 31.
The Mercury has confirmed, as it reported recently, that National Freedom Party (NFP) councillor Zandile Myeni is among the front runners for the post.
African Transformation Movement (ATM) councillor Lwazi Mbhele said a meeting had been scheduled with the ANC this week to discuss the filling of the position.
The post of deputy mayor became vacant last year after the ANC sacked Philani Mavundla via a vote of no confidence.
Mavundla, the president of Abantu Batho Congress (ABC) and who had been appointed to the post as part of the coalition agreement between the ANC and a bloc of smaller parties, tried to challenge his removal in court, but was unsuccessful.
“The two structures (ANC and the smaller parties bloc) last met on January 4, and another meeting is scheduled for later this week in preparation for the special council meeting next week. We will meet on Thursday as a bloc, and on Friday we will meet with the ANC to tell them which person the bloc will be lobbying for,” said Mbhele.
He said the bloc had not settled on who it wanted to take up the post. “We have real leaders within the bloc, Zandile is among those leaders.”
A source aware of the negotiations said Myeni was still the front runner for the post. “At the moment we are 100% confident that she will be elected, unless something changes. You know that in politics things like that (change) can happen.”
While the NFP’s Canaan Mdletshe had previously stated that Myeni was likely to ascend to the position, he was coy when asked yesterday if the party still believed this to be the case.
“At the moment all I can say is that the negotiations are going very well. The ANC (in eThekwini) is now waiting for the directive from the region as to whether the proposal put forward by the smaller parties is acceptable,” he said.
Mdletshe implied that they wanted the deputy mayor position to remain within the bloc of smaller parties.
ANC spokesperson in the province Mafika Mndebele said as far as the party was concerned the negotiations were on track and the announcement would be made soon.