By Doreen Mokgolo
The DA’s Tania Campbell has been re-elected as Ekurhuleni mayor after being ousted three weeks ago.
She was re-elected with 124 votes while 99 votes were cast for the ANC’s Jongizizwa Dlabathi through a secret ballot on Tuesday.
After the results were announced, the EFF and ANC were insulting each other. In song the EFF said the ANC are “amamenemene” traitors.
ANC chairperson in Ekurhuleni, Mzwandile Masina said they lost the election with their dignity still intact.
The EFF’s Nkululeko Dunga withdrew his nomination in the race to become mayor once the ANC nominated their mayoral candidate, Jongizizwa Dlabathi.
There are speculations that the coalition negotiations between the EFF and ANC collapsed as the EFF demanded to have full control of the Metro without being in coalition while the ANC wanted to lead in coalition.
Dunga said material conditions always determine what the position is all the time.
“For the EFF to win it needs to be supported by 50% of the councillors in council.
“The EFF has 13.5%. It would be illogical for us to continue to assume that we will take power if there are two other candidates from the two main political councillors contesting the elections,” he said.
ActionSA’s Bongani Baloi said they are going to push hard to ensure that the terms of the multi-coalition party are realised.
The DA leader in the legislature, Solly Msimango said now that they are back in leadership they are going to improve communication between all the coalition parties.
“It was sad that the Metro has been without a leader for weeks now. We are going to ensure that service delivery is accelerated especially with the backlog in refuse collection,” he said.
Speaking afte her re-election, Campbell said she will be meeting with the parties in the coalition to address the dissatisfaction that they raised in the media.
“I appreciate the EFF for voting with us today and I will meet with the party leaders to address their dissatisfaction.”
She added that she will also be redirecting funds from departments that are wasteful and underperforming to redirect the funds to waste collection.
Pictured above: Mayor Tania Campbell
Image source: Doreen Mokgolo
