THE nomination of mayoral committee members in Gauteng’s three metros of Joburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni has hit another snag and has left opposition parties, especially the ANC and African Independent Congress (AIC) fuming.
The parties are now blaming DA’s Federal Executive leader Helen Zille for the failures to appoint MMCs, especially in the City of Joburg and Tshwane. Ekurhuleni is expected to announce its mayoral committee members today.
Yesterday, AIC’s acting treasurer general and City of Joburg’s councillor Margaret Arnolds put the blame squarely at Zille’s door, accusing her of overlooking her party’s coalition partners in Joburg and Tshwane in favour of Patriotic Alliance (PA) and IFP councillors who voted for the ANC to win mayoral positions in the two metros.
“As the AIC, we are saying when the voting took place, ActionSA, EFF and Freedom Front Plus voted for the DA’s candidates for speaker, mayor and chief whip. AIC, ANC, UDM, PAC, APC, ATM, Cope and PA voted for an ANC candidate for speaker, mayor and chief whip.
“I seconded the nomination of Mpho Moerane as mayor and Ashley Sauls actually nominated ANC’s Eunice Mgcina for the position of chief whip of council.
“Ordinarily, you would expect the DA to include the parties that voted for them in their mayoral committees, but they are having talks with PA and IFP who voted for the ANC,” Arnolds said.
The situation worsened on Thursday, when the City of Joburg issued a late night cancellation of the swearing-in of new members of the mayoral committee which were due to be announced by Mayor Dr Mpho Phalatse yesterday.
On Thursday, the City of Joburg’s communication unit notified all media houses about the planned swearing-in ceremony, only to withdraw the media alert just before 8pm.
City of Joburg spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said: “The executive swearing in ceremony scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, December 10, 2021 has been postponed.
“Circumstances beyond our immediate control have unfortunately necessitated that this difficult decision be made. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
Attempts yesterday also to get comment directly from Phalatse drew a blank as her spokesperson Kwezi Sogoni referred all inquiries related to the appointment of mayoral committees to the DA’s Federal executive committee led by Helen Zille.
A similar reaction was given by City of Tshwane Mayor Randall William’s personal assistant Jordan Griffiths.
Griffiths, however, said there was no disruption of service delivery issues in Tshwane, saying Williams was also able to carry out his executive duties without any hindrance.
However, there is a glimmer of hope at Ekurhuleni after Mayor Tania Campbell issued a media alert informing the residents of Ekurhuleni that she would be announcing her members of the mayoral committee today.
The postponement of the announcement has outraged the ANC Joburg’s secretary Dada Morero who now wants Phalatse to foot the bill of the postponement from her own pocket.
“As a movement that has declared bias towards the working class, the ANC in Greater Johannesburg remains opposed to the continual postponement of the mayoral committee appointment, denying the residents of Johannesburg efficient service delivery and accountability because of forced one-night-stand arrangements between the EFF, DA and that other green mamba orphan who tries by all means to assimilate himself to whiteness,” Morero said.
He said Phalatse must foot the bill.
Zille, contacted for comment yesterday, said her party was not making any comments about coalition negotiations but confirmed that the Ekurhuleni mayor would be making an announcement of her mayoral committee today.
Despite the conundrum in the Gauteng metros, the DA-led coalition government in Mogale City Local Municipality in Krugersdorp became the first of the hung municipalities in Gauteng to announce a fully-fledged mayoral committee.
DA’s Mogale City Mayor Tyrone Gray appointed seven of his members in Mayco and three others, Lydia Sokwang Lebesa (ACDP), Bongani Nkosi (IFP), and Danny Molefi Thupane (ATM) in his executive.
The inaugural meeting for the election of speaker, mayor and chief whip of the West Rand District Council in Randfontein yesterday was postponed until Monday after one of the officials contracted Covid-19.
POLITICAL BUREAU