EFF tight-lipped over boycott of cities’ meetings
EFF councillors did not attend council meetings in Tshwane and Johannesburg on Thursday, while the ANC staged walkouts that forced the adjournment of the scheduled meetings in both councils.
It is unclear what the reasoning behind it was, but the development comes after the EFF warned the DA in a strongly worded statement last week that the DA’s behaviour in Nelson Mandela Bay “will affect all other municipalities where they rely on opposition parties in order to govern; in particular in Tshwane and Johannesburg”.
United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa threatened to leave the coalition if deputy Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Mongameli Bobani, a member of his party, was removed. The EFF appears to sympathise with the UDM.
The EFF did not respond to questions about whether its boycott of the meetings had anything to do with recent developments in Nelson Mandela Bay.
The EFF is kingmaker in Tshwane and Johannesburg, which are governed by DA-led coalition partnerships. The EFF plays the same role in several Limpopo municipalities.
Without the EFF, the coalitions do not have the majority they need to pass decisions.
It is also understood that EFF councillors did not attend a meeting of the Waterberg District Municipality’s council last Friday — a day after the party released the statement in which it indicated it would not vote with the DA in Nelson Mandela Bay.
The EFF said the DA behaved as though “it won ... in Nelson Mandela, when it did not”.
In Johannesburg, the EFF councillors sent notices excusing themselves from the meeting on Thursday morning shortly before it started at 10am. They cited “urgent organisational business” as the reason for not attending the meeting.
The DA seemed to be caught on the wrong foot, asking for a caucus meeting shortly after the meeting started. The executive asked for crucial items to be withdrawn from the council’s agenda, which included the institutional review of the city.
The ANC walked out of council, following the refusal by the executive to table key reports in council.
ANC Johannesburg leader Parks Tau said his party would perhaps “call the EFF to check for permission if they have granted mayor [Herman] Mashaba the right to present reports”.
Tau said that the EFF was also not present at a previous meeting, at which reports were also withdrawn.
Mashaba’s spokesman, Luyanda Mfeka, said questions regarding the EFF’s absence should be directed at the EFF.
“The EFF gave the ANC the majority during today’s council sitting; a majority that the voters of Johannesburg rejected during last year’s local government elections,” he said.