eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda was among scores of councillors whose absence at the first council meeting led to its cancellation. City manager Musa Mbhele was also a notable absentee.
For the meeting to convene it needed at least 112 of the 222 council members present, but only 80 were at Durban’s ICC — with ANC and EFF councillors absent — leaving speaker Thabani Nyawose with little choice but to suspend the meeting.
This evoked the fury of the councillors in attendance, who lamented the wasteful expenditure.
“Obviously there are costs my office has incurred. I’ve hired the venue which comes with the sound, I arranged refreshments for councillors. Even to bring people here is costly to the speaker of council,” said Nyawose.
Nyawose said he was in the dark as to the whereabouts of the city manager, as his office tried to contact him after noticing he was not at the meeting but there was no answer.
“I know that if there were other reasons that forced him to not be here, he should’ve communicated them to the mayor and the mayor would report to the speaker,” he said.
The council was to have voted on several important appointments to the executive committee (Exco), including deputy mayor, after Abantu Batho Congress head Philani Mavundla was voted out in December.
I’m concerned. To be a speaker without a whip of council, without a deputy mayor and one vacant Exco seat, is a major concern because it affects the functionality and operation of ghd council.
— Speaker Thabani Nyawose
Opposition parties quoted the wasteful expenditure at about R500,000.
ActionSA’s Zwakele Mncwango said he believed the ANC’s absence stemmed from uncertainty over voting between National Freedom Party’s Zandile Myeni and the ANC’s Nkosenhle Madlala for the deputy mayor position. Madlala was acting mayor when Kaunda was on leave in December.
“It shows deep divisions within the ANC, and clearly they can’t agree on the approach today. We obviously heard that the other faction believes that the deputy mayor position must be given to Zandile, who is with NFP, while some ANC members believe Madlala must take that position. So they are divided, but their division is now affecting the entire council, and that’s why they must take the responsibility of costs,” said Mncwango.
“So they are not sure about numbers or whether they were going to win the vote today. The EFF also did not come to this meeting, they (ANC) thought the EFF was on their side ... but obviously you can never trust the EFF. They have proven that they will only work with the ANC when they want.”
DA caucus leader in eThekwini Thabani Mthethwa repeated Mncwango’s sentiments about ANC councillors being held liable for the costs.
He said the ANC and the EFF should have acted more responsibly.
“The meeting was cancelled deliberately by the ANC and the EFF because they caught wind that we were ready to unseat the ANC and elect a deputy mayor from the opposition. It’s embarrassing that a supposedly leading party decided to collapse this meeting, sabotage and compromise the people of eThekwini, but we will soldier on and make sure that they are removed when the time is right,” he said.
Former deputy mayor Philani Mavundla said he was aware the meeting was not going to take place because the parties had not reached an agreement on who they would vote for. He said it was clear from the “negotiations and jostling of positions” on Wednesday that there wouldn’t be an agreement.
“Parties that are not here have the majority, but they cannot agree on a position of who needs to take what. We’re fully aware that the secretary of the ANC has made it clear Zandile Myeni (NFP) will be a deputy mayor, but some members of the ANC don’t agree with him. That’s why they can’t come here and take a position,” said Mavundla.
Considering that the human settlements and infrastructure committee had the majority of the city’s budget, Mavundla also expressed concern about what would happen to that portfolio if someone with no expertise on infrastructure was appointed to it.
“Unfortunately, not every council will have the expertise in terms of engineering and understand what needs to happen in infrastructure. Ask any council the difference between waterworks and wastewater works, they won’t know. Let’s hope there will be a person that will understand because we’re sitting with a backlog of well over 20 years,” he said.
“It’s only because the people who have been chairing these committees had no clue what is happening. The truth of the matter still remains that out of 27 wastewater works in eThekwini, 17 of them have been run to total failure, and 24 don’t have licences to be in operation. Then we complain about beaches that are not ready to be used.”
Mncwango also weighed in on the absence of the city manager, saying his decision to “ignore” his phone when the office of the speaker tried to phone him was essentially him giving “a middle finger to this council”.
ANC councillors, including Kaunda, arrived at the venue more than an hour after the meeting was cancelled. Kaunda ignored questions about why his party wasn’t present for the meeting, preferring to talk about mayoral plans for the following day.
The EFF also made an appearance shortly after the ANC.
Mongezi Thwala, EFF provincial chairperson, denied allegations that they had been working with the ANC to have Myeni as deputy mayor.
“We’ve never had such talks with the ANC. We’re not in coalition with them, that’s a distortion of facts. We’ve never had any engagements with the ANC, we’re not supporting any candidate of the ANC nor the NFP. We’re in consultation with all the parties to give us credible candidates,” he said.
He said they did not cause the cancellation of the meeting because they had submitted their apology before the meeting, as per the law.
Thwala also questioned why the council was using the expensive ICC instead of holding council meetings at the free-to-use city hall chamber.
“I’m concerned. To be a speaker without a whip of council, without a deputy mayor and one vacant Exco seat, is a major concern because it affects the functionality and operation of the council,” he said.
“I will have a meeting with all the whips of the political parties, including those who are not here. I will sit down with the and register my concern as the speaker on behalf of the people of eThekwini and councillors. We are going to be guided by our rules, and we will make sure that we act according to the rules.”
He also confirmed receiving a notice of motion to remove mayor Kaunda at the next council meeting and confirmed that the meeting would go ahead as planned.
“Monday’s meeting will still continue, it’s an ordinary council meeting to deal withcouncil issues. We are forced by law to continue with it.”
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