Celani Sikhakhane
Chaos ensued when ANC members stormed the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality council inauguration in Durban on Monday.
Hoards of ANC supporters singing protest songs stormed past security to disrupt the meeting, preventing the municipality’s new mayor, deputy mayor and chief whips from being elected.
The chaotic scenes arose after the EFF, IFP and a number of smaller parties announced their intention to vote for the DA’s “unprepared” mayoral candidate, Nicole Graham.
The ruling party managed to win the speaker position with councillor Thabani Nyawose but the meeting in the Moses Mabhida Stadium turned to mayhem when the IFP turned against the ANC at the last minute to support Graham.
Upon realising that they did not have enough votes to secure its nominee for mayoral position, Mxolisi Kaunda, ANC members allegedly began to disrupt the meeting.
They complained of the humidity inside the tent, demanded a 30-minute break, and the power inside the stadium was even cut at one point.
After this, the crowd stormed the tent and began throwing chairs and flipping tables.
A senior member of the DA spoke to Scrolla.Africa on the condition of anonymity.
He said that opposition parties’ decision to push for the DA candidate will be a disaster for his party because they are not prepared to govern the eThekwini Metro, a city with an annual budget of over R50 billion.
“As much as we want to unseat the ANC, here in eThekwini we are not prepared to govern. That is why we did not even field our Mayoral candidate,” he said.
“So this move might be a disaster for us if we end up winning the Mayorship. As the DA, we made it clear in our Provincial Executive meeting that we are fine with uMngeni but in other municipalities we will support the IFP without any agreement.
“That is why we assisted the IFP in Vryheid, Newcastle and in any other KZN municipalities,” said the DA leader.
The SAPS and Durban metro officers were sent to police the event vicinity but did nothing to stop the disorder.
The newly elected speaker Nyawose told councillors that the sitting has been adjourned due to the power failure and it will resume on Wednesday morning.
