Rumours are flying that the Western Cape’s Local Government Minister, Richard Dyantyi, is planning to use municipal laws to remove Cape Town’s DA mayor Helen Zille from office and undermine her ruling coalition.
It is said that Dyantyi plans to use either the Local Government and Municipal Structures Act or the Western Cape Determination of Types of Municipalities Act to do away with Cape Town’s executive mayor system.
”We don’t think it will help us to comment at this point. We will do so later should we need to,” said Dyantyi’s spokesperson, Vusi Tshose.
The office of Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool would not be drawn on the issue this week.
Analysts said that if Dyantyi opts for the provincial legislation Zille could soon be out of a job or see her role reduced to a ceremonial one.
While the Structures Act would require a drawn-out process of letter writing, warnings, public participation and a final decision by the Minister of Provincial and Local Government, Sydney Mufamadi, the provincial legislation gives Dyantyi more discretion.
According to the Act, he may order the replacement of a ”Type A” municipality such as Cape Town with four possible varieties of collective executive system.
The ANC and the Independent Democrats, currently in opposition in the city, have consistently demanded a multi-party executive committee system to replace the current executive mayoral committee. This could result in a 10-member committee with four seats going to the ANC, four to the DA and two to the ID. Smaller parties could lose their current influence.
”This is a hypothetical scenario at present, but the key is how practical it would be. The potential for deadlock and bickering could increase,” said the Institute for Democracy in South Africa’s Jonathan Faull.
Zille this week said she had not received any communication from Dyantyi, but viewed the rumour ”as a potentially serious threat”.
”This raises major constitutional issues,” she said. ”If it is true, it will prove that the ANC is not prepared to accept losing the election and going into opposition.”
Zille said the irony was that the coalition was working well and that intergovernmental relationships had ”never been better”.
”There is no objective reason to do this,” she said.
The four previous ANC attempts at toppling the coalition included fake letters on Africa Muslim Party letterheads stating that two of its members had been expelled for going into the coalition, and a later attempt to redefine and extend the Cape Town municipality’s boundaries.
The DA-led coalition currently holds 106 seats in the 210-seat council. The ANC has 81 seats, the ID 22 and the Pan Africanist Congress, which is not part of the coalition, one.
It is expected that Dyantyi’s office will make a formal announcement next week.