Tshwane mayoral election collapses as DA, ActionSA coalition walks out

A special council meeting on Friday night to elect Tshwane's new mayor collapsed when DA multiparty coalition members stormed out of the chambers citing their disgruntlement with the speaker's refusal to concede to their demands.

Newly elected speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana, in his maiden council sitting, was confronted with the termination of the membership of two ActionSA councillors after an investigation into allegations they had defied the party line and voted for former mayor Murunwa Makwarela.

ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said the investigation had been under way for weeks and found Mandla Mhlana and Mpho Baloyi had voted for Makwarela on February 28 and newly elected speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana on March 13. 

Beaumont accused city manager Johann Mettler of refusing to declare the vacancies.

“As we speak, an ex-ActionSA councillor whose membership has been terminated is sitting in the council chamber participating. Between Mettler and the speaker, one of them is not doing their job because you cannot be sitting in council as an individual unless you are a member of a political party.” 

The walkout was as a result of the refusal of the speaker to act on the requirement to remove the axed councillors from the chambers.

Multiparty coalition spokesperson and FF Plus leader Corné Mulder said ActionSA terminated the membership of two councillors on Friday morning and COPE had communicated its withdrawal of its councillor in the Tshwane council.

“Despite this, the speaker has refused to act on these vacancies claiming not to have received the official notice. The multiparty coalition sought to draw to the speaker’s attention that section 27 of the Municipal Structures Act requires councillors elected from the PR lists to councils to be members of a political party,” said Mulder.

He added the ongoing presence of these councillors, whose membership had been terminated, was unlawful and likely to have a material impact on the election of the mayor.

“It is suspected that allowing these councillors to vote was an essential component in the plan of the ANC and EFF to have their candidate elected today to the position of mayor of Tshwane and to co-ordinate this along with the ANC’s march to the council chamber — an act consistent with the intimidation we have seen in previous council meetings.”

Mulder added that the multiparty coalition had provided every opportunity for the speaker to correct this matter.

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“This included proposing that the meeting be adjourned until next week until such time as a competent legal opinion has been obtained in order to avoid litigation over today’s council meeting,” said Mulder.

However, he maintained the speaker “bizarrely” accepted the proposal to obtain a legal opinion and adjourned the meeting only to reverse his decision and return at 7pm without a legal opinion, saying that at this point the multiparty coalition had resolved to walk out of the council meeting.

“The ANC and EFF have led a coup against a coalition government that was awarded a majority by the residents of Tshwane.

“Through a now exposed programme of vote-buying they have sought to seize control of Tshwane and today sought to finalise this through a meeting with votes from former councillors who are not lawfully allowed to attend council meetings much less vote for mayors,” said Mulder.

He said despite the setbacks, the multiparty coalition would fight for the residents of Tshwane to ensure that the election result of 2021 is not stolen, to ensure the coalition returns to office and gets Tshwane back on track to the benefit of all of its residents.

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