'Insincere' DA fails dismally in its bid to dissolve eThekwini council

eThekwini councillors have voted against the DA’s motion to dissolve the municipality.

The party’s motion was rejected after 128 councillors voted against it, outnumbering the 75 who supported it.

DA caucus leader Thabani Mthethwa had appealed to councillors to neither use the motion to express “ego-based” views about who should have been consulted before the submission of the motion, nor to show how much they “dislike each other” as political parties.

Instead, he challenged the parties who previously accused them of filing the motion as a publicity stunt, to support them to test their sincerity.

However, that did not land with the majority of councillors.

ActionSA's Zwakele Mncwango reiterated that he agreed with the sentiments of the motion but questioned the DA’s sincerity in choosing to lead public pickets instead of engaging fellow councillors for their support.

“All of us can agree that this municipality is in crisis: there is a vacuum of leadership, and instability,” he said. “However, this motion requires a two-thirds majority, and I cannot agree more with speakers who are saying this is just cheap politics by the DA. They are not serious about passing this motion. All they care about is publicity.

“If they were serious they would've engaged parties [because] councillors must vote in this house. Instead, they opted to picket outside city hall and ICC. Their national leader had to come down to force them to picket outside the city hall.”

Visvin Reddy, from ADeC, said the council dissolution would not remove the ANC but give them more power.

“You’re saying you don't want the ANC in power, but the dissolution of the council will bring back the ANC because an ANC MEC will appoint administrators aligned to their party, with no oversight,” he said.

“You’re taking eThekwini from the pot into the fire. You’re misleading the people.”

Reddy alleged there were some DA councillors who came to them pleading for them to oppose the motion, an allegation that was repeated by at least two other councillors from the smaller parties.

Nkosenhle Madlala, from the ANC, said the motion was “a call for chaos”.

“Dissolving this council because we’re experiencing challenges betrays a deep-seated lack of care for the wellbeing of the residents. Dissolving council will not make this city the land of milk and honey — it will plunge us into more trouble because from tomorrow there would be no leadership in this city.”

The PFP's Tariq Mohamed argued that the majority of the city’s challenges stemmed from years of suffering multiple disasters that were out of its control.

“The root cause of our challenges in the city are multifaceted issues that require a co-ordinated effort from national level and a provincial response — and not a dissolution of a local council.”

Other councillors called out the party for “giving up on the council” after just two years, despite having three representatives in the executive council and 59 councillors overall.

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