The meeting started well as the speaker of the council, Sannie Tiva, led the proceedings according to the agenda. Tensions rose after EFF councillors refused to acknowledge Tiva as the legitimate speaker of the council.

The EFF is the official opposition in the council. The EFF party leader in the municipality, Clifford Malatji, had sent a motion of no confidence against Tiva on Tuesday, February 22 to the council.

At the meeting Tiva asked to be excused and requested, Noko Malatji, to proceed as an acting speaker on her behalf in order to address the motion. Malatji read out the motion to the council. Their reasons were that the speaker ignores them when they raise concerns during council meetings.

They accused her of only accommodating ANC members who are the majority party in the council. They also accused her of being lazy. The motion was seconded by Clement Ramathoga of the EFF.

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Malatji then indicated that because the letter had already stipulated why they introduced the motion of no confidence against the recently elected speaker, they had two options. Council could vote by a show of hands or by means of a secret ballot.

This didn’t sit well with the EFF councillors who wanted to debate the matter. They started to chant freedom songs and hit tables causing disorder. The police were called to remove the EEF members from the council meeting. The meeting then went ahead as planned.