Cape Town executive mayor Helen Zille is calling for a municipal poll to decide how the city should be governed, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported on Saturday.
Zille’s call came after Western Cape local government minister Richard Dyantyi sent a letter to the city notifying it of a proposed change to the municipal structure by replacing Cape Town’s executive system with a executive committee.
This would result in Zille being stripped off her powers, the broadcaster said.
It quoted Zille as saying the African National Congress should accept defeat and go into opposition.
”Well, obviously we will prefer to continue with the outcome of the last election where the multi-party government got the majority and put together the government that is stable and has been working well.
”It is the MEC Dyantyi who wants to overturn the results of that election process. He should go back to the electorate and let them decide again,” Zille said.
Meanwhile, the Western Cape’s largest trade union, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU), has expressed its concern over Dyantyi’s announcement.
SACTWU deputy general secretary Andre Kriel said the unilateral announcement was bad for democracy and the interests of workers and the community at large.
SACTWU said it would seek a mandate from its members to oppose the measure.
The union also planned to consult with other Congress of South African Trade Unions affiliates to build the widest possible consensus in the trade union movement on how to proceed on the issue, Kriel said.
Meanwhile, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday that President Thabo Mbeki was behind the plans.
Writing in his weekly newsletter on his party’s SA Today website, Leon said Mbeki was instrumental in the decision to launch the plan.
”President Mbeki was apparently instrumental in the behind-the-doors decision to launch this latest assault on Mayor Zille’s powers — a meeting at which he was elected an ex-officio member of the ANC’s provincial executive,” he said.
It was a breathtaking irony that while loudly proclaiming on South Africa’s high democratic standing, Mbeki had ”at the same time, eagerly partnered a patently undemocratic plan” to unseat Zille. – Sapa