By Doreen Mokgolo
The motion of no confidence against the Ekurhuleni mayor, Sivuyile Ngodwana, has opened a window for the ANC to finally renegotiate the terms of its coalition with the EFF and the minority parties gathered under the Super Seven umbrella.
This is after the party spent a year trying to convince the EFF and Super Seven to review the terms of their coalition with the ANC after the EFF managed to occupy all five key MMC positions, including the municipal purse.
When the coalition was voted into power in March last year, the disgruntled ANC refused to be sworn into power and demanded a renegotiation of terms while EFF councillors moved into their new offices.
Ngodwana of the African Independent Congress (AIC) was voted out on Thursday in a motion that was tabled by ActionSA, with 47 councillors voting in support and 32 against the motion. The Super Seven with 10 councillors voted in support of the motion.
The ANC abstained from voting.
The instability in the metro is the result of the three failed coalitions that have attempted to govern the city for the past three years – the first was between the DA and ActionSA, the second between the ANC and the EFF, and the third between the ANC, EFF and the Super Seven.
The EFF Ekurhuleni caucus leader, Nkululeko Dunga, said though the party had joined a political management committee that discusses differences, they and the ANC could not find one another in terms of a unified approach.
“The position of the ANC has always been that they wanted to go back to the negotiation board in terms of augmenting the executive.
“They are using the opportunity of the motion against the [EFF] speaker to force us to push us to an engagement,” he said.
The ANC’s Doctor Xakazi said although the party’s proposed amendments to the tabled motion of no confidence against the mayor were frustrated they believe they will be able to take the metro forward in the next few days.
“We are forced to go back to negotiations with all the parties – we will take cues from the higher structures as to who we go into coalition with,” he said.
The spokesperson of the Super Seven group, Spumule Ntombela, said the motion of no confidence in the mayor was never about him personally but an arrangement that was not working.
“It is unfortunate that the AIC is taking the motion as a personal attack – the arrangement was never between the AIC, ANC and EFF but [between the] Super Seven, ANC and EFF,” he said.
The group of seven minority parties which includes the AIC, Pan Africanist Congress, National Freedom Party, UDM, Cope, Independent Citizens Movement and the African Transformation Movement has been the kingmakers of the coalition government in the metro.
Pictured above: Axed Ekurhuleni mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana.
Image source: Supplied
