Johannesburg - The speaker of the Johannesburg Municipal Council, Colleen Makhubele, postponed a meeting that was meant to elect the new mayor of Johannesburg today.
This comes after a series of interruptions that saw councillors spend the entire day without a clear direction on the process of electing the executive mayor.
It appeared that Makhubele had no choice but to postpone the council meeting. The ANC had been engaged in internal battles over who should be the mayor, while the rest of the coalition partners seemed settled on choosing a mayor.
“Councillors, this whole day we have been all over the place. Clearly we are not ready to elect an executive mayor. It’s worrying that councillors keep asking for caucus breaks. I cannot deny them caucus breaks; they are a right for every party to have. It’s clear to me that the readiness of this council to conduct the business of the day is in question,” Makhubele said.
She said another council meeting would be held on Friday to elect the executive mayor of the City of Johannesburg.
Meanwhile, sources close to the ANC coalition said the PA and the EFF were not happy with a postponement. They had threatened to vote the DA back into power should the council be postponed.
The latter part of the day was also filled with drama, with reports of a group of protesters outside Luthuli House. News reports suggest that the protesters were in favour of the regional chairperson of the ANC, Dada Morero, being nominated as the mayoral candidate.
There had been an agreement among members of the government of local unity that the mayor would emerge from a minority party. This saw three candidates from the minority parties raise their hands for the mayoral position – council speaker Colleen Makhubele, councillor Margaret Arnolds of the African Independent Congress and Al Jama-ah’s Kabelo Gwamanda.
The Star understands that Gwamanda was the ANC’s preferred candidate, but there was a push-back from some who believed Arnolds should be the mayor. Some also strongly felt that Makhubele was more than qualified and experienced for the job, having served on several boards of companies and having an MBA degree and an honours degree in IT engineering.
The Star also understands that the National Council of Provinces and the Gauteng government were keeping a close eye on developments in Johannesburg. There have been threats in the past that the municipality would be placed under administration should it not be stabilised.
The Star