In a setback for Tshwane’s multi-party coalition, their candidate for council speaker lost yesterday after the IEC said 69 ballots were “spoiled” because they had numbers on them instead of crosses.

Instead, Mncedi Ndzwanana from the African Transformation Movement (ATM) was elected as the Tshwane metro’s new speaker.

The 49-year-old won with 105 votes against Kholofelo Vivian Morodi of Action SA, who got 37 votes.

This was after councillors were engaged in scuffles throughout the day.

According to the IEC, only 142 ballots out of 211 were valid as 69 votes for Morodi were “spoilt”.

Voting took place via secret ballot, which IEC declared to be “free and fair”.

Ndzwanana was born in Mfundisweni, the Eastern Cape on May 11, 1974.

He has a Higher Diploma in Theology and Leadership Skills from St Mark’s Bible College in the United Kingdom (UK).

He also has an N6 Certificate in Healthcare Professional from Guilford College in the UK and a Senior Certificate in Counseling from St Mark’s College.

In April 2023, Ndzwanana is set to start a public sector management course at Oxford Bridge Academy.

Ndzwanana’s work experience includes the SANDF from 1998 to 2003 and the Holicross Hospital as a healthcare professional in the UK.

In 2018, he became a member of ATM. In 2021, he was elected as a proportional representative councillor in the City of Tshwane.

The Tshwane multi-party coalition has, however, lodged a formal objection to the outcome of the election.

“During the counting process, the DA, ActionSA and FF Plus party agents pointed to the fact that the 69 ‘spoilt’ ballots clearly indicated the intention of voters,” said Joint Caucus Chair Jacqui Uys.

“There was no confusion or ambiguity in the markings.”

Uys said none of the ballots was “defaced”.

She said the IEC had classified the 69 votes as spoilt because they weren’t marked with a cross, but with numbers.

Uys said that the IEC’s examples of a valid vote indicated the marking of a number.

“Had the 69 so-called spoilt ballots not been discarded, the total result for Morodi would’ve been 106 of the 211 ballots. We believe that IEC officials were under pressure by the ANC and the EFF to discard these ballots to ensure the election of their preferred speaker candidate.

“The multi-party coalition will be consulting with attorneys today to determine what remedy is available to us to ensure that the 69 ballots cast for Morodi are duly counted.”

This follows the Tshwane council holding two rounds of voting on the day.

The previous round of voting had to be abandoned after ANC and EFF councillors stormed the voting area and ripped the ballot of a DA councillor.

This was because the DA was not keeping their votes secret, according to councillors, while the IEC members faced intimidation.

Tshwane metro Selby Bokaba said Tshwane had approached the IEC to aid the metro in the speaker’s election process.

“After the first attempts were abandoned due to what appeared to be the intimidation of IEC staff members, the city manager convened a meeting with the chief whip and whips of all political parties represented in council to re-establish the ground rules and ensure discipline and order during the voting and counting process.”

He said in the second successful attempt overseen by the presiding officer, who is also the IEC’s regional supervisor, presided over the election process votes were counted.

“Once counting was done, the presiding officer informed the city manager of the results and indicated that there were 69 ballots that were rejected as these ballots had numbers 1 to 69 written on them for one particular candidate, indicating the party agent/s present as to who may have voted for which particular candidate – thus implicitly revealing the identity of the voter and compromising the secrecy of the ballot.”