The ANC has recalled eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo confirmed.
The comes after the provincial working committee's meeting on Tuesday evening.
Kaunda will be redeployed to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). His last day as mayor of eThekwini will be this Friday.
Kaunda replaced controversial Zandile Gumede as mayor of the ANC's only governed metro in September 2019.
Mtolo told TimesLIVE Premium: "He [Kaunda] is redeployed; he is not recalled. Recalling is removing someone from a job and sending them to stay home."
Asked the reason for redeployment, Mtolo said Kaunda was never sent to eThekwini municipality on a permanent basis.
"We took him from the provincial government as a temporary measure in 2019, then we made it clear even then it's a temporal measure after we recalled Zandile [Gumede]," Mtolo said.
"After this election, as you know our democratic process, he was not nominated to the provincial legislature — but we did commit to him that we will take him back. Now we are taking him back to the national parliament."
We did meet with the IFP. Due to our rough history, we did sit and smoke the peace pipe and articulated a lot of issues where we are not happy with how they had been treating us. They had a tendency of interfering with our internal process
— Ivan Barnes, NFP president
This comes as the ANC is at an advanced stage of its negotiations with parties to retain control of the province. The ANC in the province met on Wednesday to update its provincial executive committee (PEC).
Insiders said the PEC was informed that the ANC had agreed to a government of national unity (GNU) in the province which will involve the DA and the IFP. With only 14 seats, the ANC will need 27 seats to secure its position as the governing party. TimesLIVE Premium understands that the three parties are hoping to persuade the National Freedom Party (NFP) to join its GNU pact.
With its single seat in the legislature, the NFP has become the kingmaker. Should the MK Party form a coalition with the EFF and NFP, it would need one more member of the legislature to vote for it to gain control of the province.
NFP president Ivan Barnes told TimesLIVE Premium it had not made any decisions to join the GNU. The NFP together with the ANC, IFP and DA met on Wednesday morning to discuss the principles and guidelines of a possible coalition in KwaZulu-Natal.
"We did meet with the IFP. Due to our rough history, we did sit and smoke the peace pipe and articulated a lot of issues where we are not happy with how they had been treating us. They had a tendency of interfering with our internal process," Barnes said.
Barnes met with former president Jacob Zuma on Wednesday afternoon. He said the two leaders resolved for two individual party negotiators to meet on Wednesday night.
He said the NFP will make an informed decision on Thursday.
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