Dalphine Tagwireyi
The ANC’s Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) in Mpumalanga is taking such a long time to resolve issues because of factionalism, that councillors are taking matters into their own hands.
At Mkhondo Local Municipality, ANC councillors voted for an independent candidate Mthokozisi Simelane as the new mayor.
Simelane won the mayorship against the ANC’s former Mkhondo mayor Vusi Motha with a total of 18 votes out of 34 while four DA councillors abstained from voting.
Simelane is the first mayor in South Africa to run a municipality as an independent councillor.
Allegations of factionalism have emerged from the ANC as they had a 54% proportional representation (PR) vote in Mkhondo and would have easily retained the seat of council with allegations flying that the six councillors voted for the opposition.
The six councillors including former mayor Motha submitted their resignation letters on Friday claiming that the candidate list process was flawed and they are not happy with the slow pace of the leadership in resolving these issues.
The councillors suspended their resignation on Monday so they would be able to participate in the mayoral elections.
Out of 38 seats in Mkhondo municipality, the ANC has 21, the EFF seven, the DA four, the Independent two while the NFP, ATM, IFP and FFPlus have one each.
The ANC in Mpumalanga has retained all municipalities except for Mkhondo and Lekwa with Lekwa Community Forum (LCF) who emerged as the king makers with a majority of six PR votes.
The eight-month-old LCF, a civic group, dislodged the 28 year hold of the ANC with Delani Thabete as mayor and Oliver Phiri as speaker.
There were allegations of vote-buying from the ANC leadership with Gert Sibande district being accused of approaching other opposition parties to either vote in favour of the ANC or abstain in the council votes in exchange for money.
