Cape Town — The African Independent Congress’ (AIC) Sivuyile Ngodwana, will live to see another day in office as the Ekurhuleni executive mayor after he survived yet another vote of no confidence.
This is the third time that Ngodwana has had to face the music after ActionSA brought the vote against him, accusing him of running the city into the ground. ActionSa were supported by the Democratic Alliance (DA), Freedom Front Plus (FFP), African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), and Patriotic Alliance (PA). The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and African Independent Congress (AIC) defended the mayor, EWN reported.
The meeting was suddenly adjourned after eight hours, as it was filled with long delays, several caucus breaks and service delivery protests, proceedings hit another snag when the African National Congress (ANC) called for an amendment to the motion.
Speaker of Council Nthabiseng Tshivenga adjourned the meeting for legal consultations on the matter but it remains unclear when the vote will resume.
According to TimesLIVE, ActionSA was confident that it had the numbers to back its request, with its former multiparty coalition partners and the ANC reportedly supporting Ngodwana’s removal — leaving the EFF on their own.
The Ekurhuleni council was plagued with several delays yet again yesterday at the resumption of the meeting that collapsed on 29 February. ActionSA’s Funzi Ngobeni says they are confident that they will remove Mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana.
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It is believed that the ANC caucus was divided about Ngodwana’s axing, but eventually raised its hand to a “collective executive system” as an amendment. The ANC proposed the mayor should come from the party with the most seats. It also wants the council to elect the executive committee.
The EFF, which is in support of the current mayor, has welcomed the adjournment, SABC News reported.
“We have a firm believe that it is obviously in the best interest of the people of Ekurhuleni. Yes, there are challenges that we are working on to try and correct. The meeting has since stopped on the basis that there were issues of interpretation. The speaker made a ruling that the ANC actually wanted the speaker to reverse that particular ruling,” EFF’s Nkululeko Dunga explains.
The council also finally tabled the Auditor General’s report, which was welcomed by City Manager, Imogen Mashazi.
“We need to differentiate between finances and service delivery. Remember this is election year. People will protest and will say there is no service delivery. So, for us, as officials, as per the AG’s report has given us a clean audit in terms of performance, which talks to the service delivery standards. So, this thing of politicians saying there is no services and people protesting is outside our hands as officials,” says Mashazi.
The City of Ekurhuleni received an unqualified audit for the 2022/23 financial year. City manager Dr Imogen Mashazi says their finances are perfect.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
