Ekurhuleni speaker accused of delaying election of new mayor

Ekurhuleni speaker Nthabiseng Tshivenga has been accused of deliberately delaying the election of a new mayor.

This after former mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana of the AIC was axed last week through an ActionSA sponsored motion of no confidence. Ngodwana had survived two previous such motions before last week.

The Ekurhuleni council was meant to sit for an extraordinary council meeting on Thursday to elect the city's first resident but councillors received a notice from Tshivenda saying the meeting had been postponed “due to unforeseen circumstances”.

ActionSA caucus whip Siyanda Makhubo warned that the election of a mayor was not to be taken lightly as the entire administration was at risk every day due to the lack of political oversight, resulting in a power vacuum.

“There is no ambiguity on this matter. The unilateral decision of the speaker is a decision that not only violates a council resolution to convene within seven days [for the election of a mayor] but also rule 35(6) of the standing rules of council that affords the speaker a right to postpone or cancel a council meeting 72 hours before a scheduled council meeting.”

Makhubo has since blamed Tshivenda for transgressing both the law and violating council resolutions.

“This illegal decision once again highlights Tshivenga's complete disregard for council procedures and the EFF's determination to undermine every democratic process in council which does not suit them.”

In fact, the caucus whip said, this was not the first instance that Tshivenga seemed troublesome in her post.

“Ekurhuleni has been held hostage for over a year now by councillor Tshivenga, who has in this short period allowed her EFF caucus to disrupt and postpone council on four separate occasions.”

ActionSA said it would be convening other concerned party leaders to explore legal options and the possibility of the city manager's intervention, in accordance with a rule that stipulates that a city manager may convene and preside over a council meeting should a majority of councillors petition the speaker.

The DA leader in Ekurhuleni, Tania Campbell, said her party feels vindicated in its call to dissolve the council and hold fresh elections, referring to the postponement of the mayoral election as yet another stalling tactic.

“It is reported that the EFF and the ANC are engaged in a dispute over positions, further delaying proceedings,” said Campbell.

She said with the city leaderless, service delivery was collapsing under the political instability and residents and communities across Ekurhuleni bore the brunt of this.

“We believe, now more than ever, that the council needs to be dissolved and fresh elections take should place in order for residents to give council a renewed mandate.

“Under the so-called ‘People’s Government’ led by the ANC/EFF coalition of chaos the city was downgraded to junk status by Moody’s, and Ekurhuleni has lost its clean-audit status.”

Campbell said the political instability is deepening the governance woes in the city and they were witnessing wide-scale collapse of services on the watch of the ANC/EFF coalition.

“We cannot wait any longer, we need to dissolve council and have fresh elections to stabilise Ekurhuleni.”

Tshivenga had not responded to requests for say at the time of publishing.