Still no Deputy Mayor elected
Meeting to elect Deputy Mayor has been postponed
A marathon Endumeni Council meeting again failed to elect a Deputy Mayor.
The meeting at one stage turned into a sniping match between former speaker, Sdudzo Mdluli (ANC) and new speaker, Bongiwe Mbatha-Makathini (IFP) as the ANC accused the DA of holding the council to ransom over their failure to nominate their executive committee representative.
The three member executive committee comprises of one DA member, one ANC member and one IFP member.
However, the DA has still not decided if Cllr Raubenheimer or Cllr Bedassi will be the party’s EXCO representative.
Cllr Bedassi said that they were following ‘head office instructions’.
Cllr Mdluli said that the ANC will take the legal route as the council had elected a Mayor and Speaker without the EXCO being properly constituted yet was prepared to postpone the election of Deputy Mayor because of the DA’s indecision.
He said COGTA had already indicated that the meeting should conclude with the election of all posts today as tomorrow marks the end of the 14 day deadline for councils to be constituted.
However, Speaker Mbatha-Makathini waved away these objections, saying COGTA could only advise and the council could take its own decisions.
“We cannot allow the DA to lose their opportunity to have a representative on EXCO as per the voting that was done on August 3,” she said.
The council then voted, 7-6, in favour of postponing the election of Deputy Mayor.
After much deliberation and a maths lesson from the IEC officials, that would have confused Einstein, the council finally voted to send their quota of two representatives to the Umzinyathi District Council, these being the IFP’s T Zitha and Thulani Mahaye of the ANC.
This has been a rocky start for the new council and cool heads will be needed.
