The crisis over the Cape Town mayoral system is coming to a head, with mayor Helen Zille set to meet Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi on Friday.
Recently Zille accused the ANC of attempting to make the city ungovernable, while the ANC and Independent Democrats (ID) stormed out of a full council meeting in protest against the sudden postponement of the vote on a motion mandating her to declare an intergovernmental dispute with Western Cape Local Government Minister Richard Dyantyi. That meeting will also happen on Friday.
The vote on the motion to give Zille a mandate to declare a dispute with the province was postponed when Speaker Dirk Smit suddenly adjourned the meeting.
Leader Simon Grindrod, who angrily led the walkout, followed by ANC councillors, described Smit’s actions as ”autocratic and unprocedural”.
Zille later said she had received news earlier in the day that the walkout had been planned to ”crash the quorum”, giving Dyantyi a reason to intervene.
The ANC and ID have denied this.
If Zille gets her mandate for a dispute, it will mark the beginning of a lengthy court battle.
But analysts and council insiders believe legal action is likely to be averted, and that Zille and her coalition partners will weather the storm.
Ebrahim Fakir, a political analyst with the Centre for Policy Studies, said the impasse required a political, rather than a legal solution and that the ANC was unlikely to win control of the council. ”Dyantyi’s appeal to the law is ill-advised,” said Fakir. ”As unpalatable as a DA-led administration may be to some, legally and politically it is beyond reproach.”
Fakir’s view dovetails with insider accounts that Mufamadi would like to see a settlement outside court.
The Western Cape government’s move has heightened political tensions — including those within the tripartite alliance. Cosatu has consistently criticised the ANC for acting unilaterally on the issue and for waiting almost six months to make the move.
International pressure on the government is mounting over what Zille has described as a power grab. In the past fortnight coverage critical of the ANC has appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, the BBC, CNN and The Spectator.
At a media conference on Wednesday Zille said she had received news ”that national Cabinet is appalled at MEC Dyantyi’s coup d’Ã