Political chaos rears ugly head at Tshwane metro – again

Political instability made an unwelcome comeback at Tshwane council recently, adding to the coalition troubles as the DA and ActionSA fought about bringing the EFF on board as a coalition partner.

This follows a chaotic meeting in January in which councillors had to form a human shield to protect a female ward councillor as EFF councillors tried to grab a document from her.

ActionSA Herman Mashaba held a press conference last week in which he said the failure by the coalition to work with the EFF in Ekurhuleni municipality could see the partners losing the municipality to the ANC.

Mashaba claimed he was asked by the DA to ask the EFF to vote for the coalition in Ekurhuleni.

This was after the DA vowed in public to never work with EFF again. Mashaba also said the EFF offered to support the coalitions in the three metros for which they sought committee chair positions in the legislatures.

The coalition partners (DA, Freedom Front Plus, ActionSA, Cope and ACDP) in a joint statement quickly refuted his claims.

The differences between the partners take place as scenes of chaos recently revisited the Tshwane metro during the election of chairperson committees.

On January 31, mayor Randall Williams and four other councillors formed a human shield around councillor Jacqui Uys who nominated the committee members. This as EFF councillors kept on interrupting Uys from nominating chairpersons for a committee.

All EFF councillors walked out of the chambers after Makwarela repeatedly asked metro officials to escort Ramabodu and two councillors out of the chambers for going to the speaker’s podium and snatching documents from the speaker while shouting.

ALSO READ: Tshwane council turns down R430m salary increase, ANC and EFF unhappy

Meanwhile, ANC councillors did not even attend the meeting, saying that it was “illegal”.

Unisa political analyst professor Dirk Kotze said there was much pressure on the coalition government’s stability.

“The differences amongst the coalition partners will have an impact on all three metros. ActionSA is necessary for the coalition in Tshwane and Johannesburg.

“Without ActionSA, the coalition becomes too small.”

Kotze said there was frustration in the EFF camp. He said this was due to EFF no longer having any “kingmaker” votes or any influence in coalitions.

“They are not taken seriously by the new coalition. Julius Malema commented not so long ago saying they wanted the public accounts portfolio position in Johannesburg.

“I think this is the key message conveyed that they are not happy not being incorporated in coalitions.”

As long as the opposition (EFF and ANC) were divided, then the coalition could survive, Kotze said.

“A motion of no confidence by EFF and ANC will become a real threat if they decide to work together.”

Kotze said chaos at council meetings would not have much impact on paralysing the coalition government.

In the 2016 coalition, when the ANC and EFF councillors walked out, the council did not reach a quorum, which led to the council’s collapse in March 2020. This year the coalition has a quorum with or without the two parties.

He said the coalition was under pressure to make things work in Tshwane.

“The public is very tired of what happened in previous years. They do not want that to be repeated. There is a lot of pressure on the coalition to prevent conflict coming from within.”

The chairpersons of committees exercise oversight over draft budget processes, tariffs and also analyse legislative matters of the mayoral committee. Opposition parties usually like these roles to hold the government to account.

WATCH :

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram