Shifting alliances: Thabani Nyawose, speaker of the eThekwini municipality (above), has retained his position, despite a vote of no confidence against him this week, from which the EFF abstained. Photo: Gallo Images/Darren Stewart)
eThekwini speaker Thabani Nyawose has survived a motion of no confidence in his leadership brought by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in response to what it describes as the chaotic running of KwaZulu-Natal’s only metro council.
A total of 74 councillors from the opposition backed the IFP motion, brought by councillor Mzi Gwala, while 108 from the ANC, the National Freedom Party (NFP) and some of the one- and two-seat parties, which helped it retain power after 2021, opposed it.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which also helped the ANC retain the city after November 2021, abstained from the vote, despite having recently voted in favour of a motion to remove eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda from office.
Deteriorating relations between the two parties have weakened the ANC’s hold over the city, which is also likely to be affected by the break away from the governing party by former president Jacob Zuma.
This follows earlier motions brought separately against Nyawose and Kaunda, the most recent of which — against Kaunda — failed by an 11-vote margin on 31 January.
The ANC has controlled the city by virtue of the support of the EFF, the NFP and parties such as Visvin Reddy’s African Democratic Change (ADEC) since it lost its outright majority in the November 2021 local government elections.
Since then, shifting alliances have seen it lose the support of the EFF, while ADEC, which is now aligned with Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party, backed the motion to remove Nyawose this week.
In the motion, Gwala said that while Nyawose was meant to be the custodian of the council’s rules of order and the code of conduct for its councillors, “there has been instability during full council meetings caused by the way the speaker conducts council meetings”.
Nyawose had also denied councillors access to legal opinions during meetings and had failed to provide them with office facilities for more than two years, Gwala said.
In doing so, he had failed to comply with section 40 of the Municipal Systems Act and should be immediately removed from office.
During the heated debate before the motion, ANC councillors defended Nyawose, saying he had ensured monthly meetings were held and that public engagement around council and its work took place.
The EFF recently voted in favour of a motion to remove city’s mayor Mxolisi Kaunda. Photo by Gallo Images/Darren Stewart)
Councillor Thanduxolo Sabelo said an earlier attempt by the Democratic Alliance (DA) to unseat Kaunda had been “crushed” and that the party had used the IFP as their “puppets” in bringing their motion. Uproar ensued, with order only restored after Sabelo withdrew his comment.
DA caucus chairperson Thabani Mthethwa said that if there was chaos in council, it impacted on the residents of the city.
“If there is a weakness in the system, the entire value chain suffers.
“Councillors have not had offices for almost three years since we came into office. This is a function residing in the office of the speaker,” he said.
“If the council cannot run smoothly, and take informed and mature decisions because of the indecisive nature of the speaker, then the people of eThekwini have a problem.”
Nyawose might have survived the vote but the shifting nature of alliances at city level — and the outcome of the national and provincial elections — are likely to bring further attempts to unseat him.
While the deteriorating relationship between the ANC and the EFF has seen the governing party turn increasingly to the smaller parties in the council to retain its slender majority, some of them backed the IFP this week.
The abstention of the EFF helped the ANC’s case on this occasion but can’t be guaranteed going forward.
The ANC recently recalled the EFF’s Thabani Mvubu as chairperson of the city’s influential human settlements and infrastructure committee, which heightened the tension between the parties.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian, Mvubu said the ANC had recalled him as it did not want the EFF dominating service delivery in the city going into the elections.
“They are in panic mode. In the battlefield of this coming election, if you are going to have a MMC of the EFF leading service delivery programmes, the guy in the red overalls is going to get the credit for everything good that is going on in the city,” he said.
The ANC had, Mvubu said, realised that the EFF was “making serious inroads” in the city through the optics associated with the portfolio.
“Add in the phenomenon of MK, add Inkatha, factor in the DA and the fact that the ANC is in a state of paranoia. They are trying by all means to maintain legitimacy. This is just a tactic that they are using,” he said.
The recall of Mvubu has left the committee — which has a budget in excess of R4 billion — with no chair and the ANC with a dilemma as only an executive committee (exco) member can occupy the post.
All its exco seats are occupied, one of them by the NFP’s Zandile Myeni, who was given the deputy mayor’s position in return for the party’s support for the ANC retaining control of the city. The ANC is faced with the choice of either recalling Myeni or one of its own exco members — both unpalatable options — and has opted to leave the post empty for now.
ANC eThekwini deputy regional secretary and exco member Nkosenhle Madlala told the M&G this week Mvubu had not been replaced but that the committee was continuing with its work.
In the interim, committee deputy chairperson Bheki Mngwengwe had taken over his responsibilities, while exco had asked Kaunda to perform the committee chair’s oversight role.
“He hasn’t been replaced yet. The deputy chairperson will deal with the day-to-day functions and will chair meetings. Exco has mandated the mayor to play the oversight role,” Madlala said.
“The committees are there to assist the mayor in the running of the city.”
The committee had continued to function normally and had held meetings and taken decisions.
“We took decisions dealing with matters before the committee. It can function without a head.”
Madlala said there was “no anomaly” in the committee continuing without a chairperson “for a reasonable period”.
On Thursday the ANC used its numbers to remove the DA’s Andre Beetge from exco.